Defying Gravity
by Artistia
Summary: Everything I thought I knew proved to be a lie. Now to uncover the truth of my past, and who I am I must attempt to do the impossible, Defy the laws of nature and destiny, and learn to Defy Gravity... Update coming around Christmas, on hiatus right now
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: **Okay, first chapter of my new story Defying Gravity. Now, I have a few things to say about this story. Romance isn't a huge part of this one as in the last story, so that is why it isn't listed. It will be there, just not right away. Second is that Michiru maybe be listed as the second main character, but she doesn't show up for a while. I'm writing this story in chunks, I found that was the best way. Michiru doesnt' show up until the third or forth chunk, so this is a long story. I am doing this in order to explain the story in a way that you the reader knows about as much as the main characters do. So, if anybody asks me "Where is Michiru?" I will ignore them because then I will know they didn't read this wonderful explanation I am writing. The chunks are events occurring at the same time in different locations in different points of view. The first POV is Usagi. Her chunk is finished. The second POV is from an OC who you will meet later. The following chunk will most likely be Michiru unless something unforeseeable happens within the story line. Another thing, I got a complaint about changing peoples name's in the story, saying that it might confuse people. Well, too bad. I am writing the story, so I say what goes.

**This is an Alternate storyline piece of fiction. In show time, I'm guessing it would take place after the heart snatchers, but Chibi-Usa can't use the silver crystal, at all and never has. Because of the extent to which I am changing the original story, it would be safe to assume it could be classified as AU type material. All original characters belong to me and their will be quite a few who play important roles in this story.**

**Scout bashing, Mamoru bashing and Chibi-Usa bashing will occur in this story. You don't approve, don't read. **

**Rated T for language, and abuse.**

**Summary:** Everything I thought I knew proved to be a lie. Now to uncover the truth of my past, and who I am I must attempt to do the impossible, Defy the laws of nature and destiny, and learn to Defy Gravity.

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Sailor Moon: Defying Gravity

Chapter 1

_I don't know how much longer I can take this. The insults, the false pity, and the disappointed faces that result from high expectations. They expect me to be someone great over night, to just suddenly wake up one day and know everything that I need to know in order to be a wise ruler. They don't understand, they never have. How could they? They don't have the weight of the world on their shoulders. Instead of trying to share the burden, they shovel on more weight, increasing the load with their lofty expectations and assumptions of my abilities. _

_ The scouts want me to be the perfect princess they assume I once was, the wise queen they all saw in the future, and the loving mother Chibi-Usa told them I was. I am sixteen years old. I shouldn't have to deal with any of these things. I shouldn't have had to change for them, become someone that disappointed my family. Disgraced my family, as my father so kindly put it when he was whipping my for another failed test. They all expect perfection, but what happens when I can't give that to them? More insulting, more belittling, and worst of all, more beatings._

_ I just can't take this any more_! I opened my desk drawer, and there sat my salvation on its velvet throne. My fingers brushed against the stainless steel blade of the paper cutter that my parents had given to me the previous year for Christmas. My father had gotten it from one of the people he works with, and he didn't want it, so I got it as my present that year. Funny, it's probably the only decent thing they've ever given me. It is about to become my way out, my ticket to freedom from this hell I've been living with for so long.

I could feel my loyal guardian's gaze on me as I picked up the knife and held it to my wrist. I pressed the sharp edge down into the skin, just hard enough to break it. Pulling the blade back, I watched as blood seeped out slightly, not enough to be fatal though, but I'll fix that momentarily.

Turning my head slightly, I saw my guardian, and the fear in her eyes. I'm not sure what she saw in mine, but I'm pretty sure that she knew that I had reached my breaking point. I turned back to the knife in my hand and lifted it back to my wrist. _I just can't do this anymore._

"Usagi!"

My mother's voice came through the door and broke me out of my thoughts. I quickly returned the blade to its throne and hid my slightly bloody wrist behind me. I plastered on an innocent face just as my mother opened the door.

"What is it mom?" I asked, seeing the angry look on her face.

My mother, or better, Ikuto, just shook her head, "I thought you would change as you got older, but it seems as if I was wrong."

I did not like where this was going. "What do you mean?"

"Your school called, they, you, ugh, I can't believe you disgraced us like this," Ikuto yelled, walking back out into the hall.

"What are you talking about?" I asked, following her into the hall. I really did not like the sound of this.

"She's talking about you getting kicked out of school," Chibi-Usa sneered. "Only a couple months into school and you get kicked out, what a joke Usagi-baka."

My father- nope that's giving him too much credit- Kenji- that's better- walked up, his face was hideously angry, "You have disgraced us young lady. Why couldn't you be more like Chibi-Usa or Shingo? They are perfect and work hard, while you…" He stopped and struggled with himself for a moment, trying to contain his rage, for once, "You are a mistake."

Tears began to fill my eyes. No matter what they did to me before, I still semi-loved them, and it still hurt hearing that the people that gave me life thought I was a mistake. "Usagi," Ikuto started, "You are to stay in your room until you are able to come out with more sense. We will talk to your school to take you back, but you will come back from school right away and study. No video games, no friends, no milkshakes, and no dinner unless we bring it up to you."

"Just help me please! I can't understand the work the way the rest of the kids do," I cried out, trying to get them to understand.

"Then you will just have to learn to be like everyone else," Kenji replied harshly, ignoring my plea for help.

The tears that had welled up in my eyes fell down my face. I rushed back into my room and slammed the door. I would have locked it if I could, but Kenji had taken the lock off of the door a while ago. I flung myself onto my bed a cried. Luna, my loyal guardian, jumped up on the bed next to me, and nuzzled my face.

"Usagi," Luna soothed, "I have watched you grow over the past couple years, but you are still growing. I have seen how much the resentment of your scouts has hurt you, and how much the neglect has left you broken. They resent that you are their leader and their princess and refuse to help you. People need help in order to grow, and no one has provided you with that help. If I had known this would've happened once you found the others, I wouldn't have forced you to become Sailor Moon, or find the scouts. I understand now, how much pressure and pain we placed you under."

"Oh Luna," I cried, hugging the cat to my chest, "What am I going to do? I can't understand the work at school with the way they teach it. I just can't put it together."

Luna sighed, "I see that now. I don't know why I didn't see it before… Maybe, maybe now the scouts will see how much pain you are in and help you. Maybe if you go to them now, they will finally hear you and understand."

I just looked at her when she said that. "I doubt it Luna," I replied, "but I will go. Hopefully, I'll get back without being caught."

Before leaving, I decided to take a shower, so it would seem that I was getting ready for bed. I washed the dried blood off my arm, wishing that it would wash my pain away so easily, or wash me away. After getting out, I dried and got dressed; pulling my hair up into the traditional buns I hated so much, I sighed as I looked at my reflection. _Is this who I am? Is this what I am?_ I shook away the thoughts, and walked back into my room. Looking at my loyal guardian, I motioned my head towards the window, and climbed out silently, Luna fast behind me.

I made my way to Rei's temple. Something inside of me told me the scouts would be there. All of the years of running to school, to scout meetings and to battles have made me pretty fast, but I still trip every now and then. Kenji breaking my leg a couple years ago probably has something to do with that though.

When we reached the temple, I heard multiple voices inside. _I really don't like the sound of this. _I knew I had been right; they were all already here. I braced myself, and moved forward, opening the door. The room went deathly silent. _I knew it._ Inside were all of the scouts, minus Michiru, who was away for a concert tour, and Minako, who had caught the flu and few days ago. Artemis was there on her behalf though. Mamoru and Chibi-Usa were there as well. Seeing the little brat surprised me, how had she gotten out? Artemis, who walked up and greeted us, broke the silence, "Usagi! Luna!"

"Hi Artemis," I said weakly, "How is Minako-chan doing?"

"She's doing much better, and is almost back to herself," Artemis replied, looking at me worriedly.

Before I could respond, Mamoru interrupted, "What are you doing here Usako?" The resentment in his voice, which I had always ignored before, was like salt on a fresh wound now. _Did he ever really care for me?_

"I came to talk to you guys," I said hesitantly. The feeling I was getting in the room was not a good one.

"We know you got kicked out of school Usagi-chan," Ami stated, no sympathy in her voice.

"Yes, and we've all agreed to help you," Artemis added, looking up at me.

I stared down at him in disbelief, "Really?"

"Yes," Rei spoke instead, "and the best way to do that is to remove you from the scouts."

"What?" Luna and Artemis cried out, I just looked at them in shock.

"That's not what we decided," Artemis protested, "We agreed to help her, not hurt her further, not throw her away."

"We never decided that," Setsuna replied, "We agreed to do what was best for Usagi, and for the scouts."

Haruka nodded her head in agreement, "That's right, and Usagi needs to grow up and start acting more mature. With scout business, she can't focus on learning how to become a great queen. She can't grow up and put this idiotic teenager act aside if she is constantly dealing with being a scout, which is can't do very well any way. Always tripping, and getting tossed around..."

"We agreed," Makoto added, "that you should halt all scout activity, and relinquish your right as leader to…"

"Me," Rei interrupted.

"We didn't really agree on that point," Ami corrected.

"But I'm the best candidate," Rei shot back.

"Shut-up," Hotaru hissed, before turning back to look at me, "we have reached this decision unanimously. Minako's and Michiru's votes were not counted since they weren't here, but it doesn't matter anyway."

"And I've decided that we are off until you begin to act more mature, and more motherly towards Chibi-Usa," Mamoru added. The little pink haired nightmare stuck her tongue out at me, before cuddling herself back to Mamoru's arm.

The fact that my friends, my boyfriend, and my supposed future child didn't want me, they wanted someone else, someone different, came crashing down upon me. I felt tears make their way down my face. Each one soon joined by another. I heard the scouts mutter disapproval at my display.

"Oh stop crying Usagi-baka and just hand over the crystal," Rei snapped.

At that statement, my tears dried in an instant. I raised my head and looked into each one of their eyes. These people who supposedly loved me, and cared about me, bah, I didn't see a shred of compassion in their eyes, only malice. I straightened my back and hardened my gaze. After giving Luna the disguise pen back, I threw my communicator at the scouts. "You want the silver crystal," I said, staring defiantly into Rei's eyes, "Come and get it." I opened my locket, and the crystal rose out of its container. Rei made a grab at it, but the silver crystal flashed, flinging her backwards, before retreating into my body.

"What the hell Usagi-baka?" Rei yelled, steadying herself, before reaching forward as if to strike me. However, the silver crystal flashed once more, but with enough intensity to fling the fire priestess into the wall.

"Silly scouts," my voice was low, and cold, "You can't control the crystal unless you are a moon born royal free of greed and hatred. Not even Chibi-Usa can use it."

"You all have shown you're true colors, and have disgraced your planets," Luna chided, disappointment coating her voice.

Artemis glared at all of them, Mamoru most of all. "She gave up so much for you, all of you, who aren't even worth her love and friendship."

"Oh sure," Haruka sneered, "You're acting all tough, well guess what; we don't need you!"

I let out a laugh, a small laugh. It was thick with tears and sadness, but I didn't let them know that. "Well, if that is the case," I began, "good luck on your own."

With that, I walked off with my two loyal guardians into the cold, moonless night.

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**A/N:** That's really sad. Some people can't learn the same way others do. Visual learners and Verbal learners both have to be considered when teaching, but sometimes, one or the other gets left out. So which is Usagi? Visual or Verbal? P.S. Villain introduced in next chapter. Any takers on who it is? No, it is not an OC, it is someone from the show.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** Alright, here is the second chapter. Again, it would be helpful if you read this lovely little author's note first. I have been taking a class on Japanese Art, and when you study the art of a country or time period, you also have to study the culture, customs and what the society is like in general. Some people may feel that what Usagi's parents do in this chapter is way out of line, or the reasoning is anyway, but, you know, some families are just like that. But it also has something to do with the Japanese culture. It's not bad, it's just different. Japan has kept itself isolated culture wise for thousands of years until have the second world war. However, even when it is starting to accept foreign influences and such, some parts of Japan refuse to change, mostly the mindset of some of the people. They believe in the old ways, and are slow too accepting the new ways. There is nothing wrong with that, it is just difficult when part of the family has been moving in the new part of the culture and believes in it, ideas clash, and some families are broken because of it. This generally occurs in the upper level families and let's put it this way, the Tsukino's believe themselves to be upper class.

I've also been getting alot of favorite alerts and story alerts, and that's great, but reviews would be nice as well. I don't know what you all like about this story unless you tell me. Also, I will not be updating regularly, I'm just gonna tell you all that now. I have exams and papers, but I'm also revamping this story as I am typing it. Fixing some of the problems that I found later on in the plot.

Speaking of that, here's what this story is going to look like: Part 1: Usagi's POV, Part 2: OC's POV (u'll get a glimpse of them in this chapter, but only one will dictate part 2) Part 2 b: Usagi's POV but this might change, Part 3: Michiru's POV, and Part 4: ? (not gonna tell you :P)

Anyway, there will be more from me at the bottom, but have fun with the chapter. Abuse and a bit of language? maybe. Rated T people

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**Chapter 2**

I ran. I didn't really know where I was going, or how far; I just knew I had to run. Pretty soon, I found myself in the park. Collapsing on one of the benches, I cried until my eyes hurt. I no longer had a concept of time, and no idea what time it was. Luna and Artemis sat on the ground at my feet, simply watching me. They offered no words of comfort, didn't say anything, and it meant the world to me. I didn't want words right now. Fate had another idea for me though.

"Serenity," I heard someone calling the name that I had come to despise so much. It was connected to so much pain for me in this life. I still couldn't recall my previous life when I had that name. I looked up and my eyes locked on to the figure of the former moon queen.

"Mother," I sobbed, hoping that she'll love me that she would care for me.

"Dear, the scouts just want what's best for you," the spectral queen began, "Maybe you should retire from the scouts so that you can mature a bit."

"So you agree with them?"

"Mostly yes. You need to grow up some more, and start to act more like a queen and a mother."

"But what if I don't want that?" I screamed. I was tired of people telling me what I had to do, who I had to be.

The Queen's gaze hardened, "You need to stop being so selfish young lady and start doing what is expected of you. You will not disgrace me this way."

"Well I'm sorry that I can't be perfect, that I can't be like you," I spat, and took off once more. I ran in the direction of my house. I was tired and wanted to go to bed. Artemis returned home to tell Minako about everything that had happened. Her house was relatively close to mine, only a couple blocks away. Just as I had managed to get myself through the window, light flooded the room. I froze and turned slowly. Behind me were my parents, with furious glares on their faces.

"Where have you been?" Ikuto screeched. I couldn't move, couldn't speak.

"Don't even bother with an explanation," Kenji roared, "We know you were out with a boy! Chibi-Usa told us she saw you with that Mamoru person! And after we specifically told you to stay here. For disobeying us, you must be punished." I saw him wave the wooden paddle in his hand. I was frozen with fear. The maniacal look in his eyes told me that I would be lucky if I lived to see the sunrise. He struck the side of my arm; the force was strong enough to force me sideways. As Sailor Moon, I was strong, but as Usagi, I was just a weak little girl who was petrified of her abusive father. The paddle landed again, this time on my stomach, and then on my back. I fell on the floor as he continued to pummel my back and sides. I was in excruciating pain, and willed for him to stop. He finally did, but only after hearing a sickening crack coming from my ribcage.

I coughed, even though it hurt, and saw my blood stain my once white carpet. I never screamed out, I was too afraid. I simply laid there as I slowly bled to death.

"Let that be a lesson to you," the man that no one should ever have to call father spat as he turned and left the room. I turned my head to my mother who was still in the room, hoping that this would be the time that she would care, but her face was hard and cold.

"You'll know better the next time you disobey us," Ikuto hissed. I wondered if they even considered that this time, there might not be a next time. That this time he beat me would be the end of me. She turned and left, leaving me, her daughter, dying on the floor.

Luna, who could only watch as he beat me, ran to me. "Usagi," she cried, worry evident on her face.

Determination flooded through my veins as I slowly turned and crawled to the window. Somehow I managed to get myself out onto the tree, only falling off the last branch, which was closer to the ground. As I hit the ground I gasped out in pain. Gritting my teeth, I pulled myself up and began to make my way to Minako's house. I had gone a little over a block, with Luna at my side before I fell again. This time, I knew I wouldn't be getting back up on my own. "Luna," I croaked, "go get help, go find help."

She nodded, and took off, continuing in the direction I was going. The last thing I saw before the darkness swept me away was her furry little body running all out down the road.

* * *

I heard voices speaking, but it sounded like they were far away. My mind was so foggy and muddled. I tired to concentrate on the voices, trying to figure out what they were saying, but they too were foggy and muddled. Suddenly, it felt like I was moving, rushing towards the voices but before I got there, I burst through a wall of pain. I groaned, and tried to scream, but thought better of it when another wave of pain coursed through me.

"Usagi," I heard what I thought was Minako's voice call out to me.

"I think she can hear you, keep calling to her," another voice said. I didn't recognize this one, but I could tell that it was an older woman.

I groaned again, but felt myself moving towards the voices once more. The darkness blurred out a little, giving way to a harsh light. It took me a couple seconds to realize that my eyes were opening and I was staring at the harsh fluorescent lighting of a hospital room.

"I think she's awake, Usagi," Minako called again. I slowly turned my head and my bleary eyes locked on to her face. Her eyes conveyed happiness, but also anger and sadness.

"Wha hapwened?" I slurred, my voice sounding like a drunkard who finally pickled his brains. I was a little startled to hear what I sounded like, but I suspected that the IV connected to my hand had something to do with it.

Minako glanced next to her to an older woman who looked to be in her 50's. The doctor? "It's just the medication, not to worry," the woman assured her before turning to look at me, "Usagi, your cousin here told me that you were mugged on your way to her house, do you remember?"

I sent Minako a silent thank you with my eyes. "Nawh, I down't wemembwer much," I said, crossing my eyes slightly at the sound of my own voice.

"Alright, if you don't remember then I won't call the police, there's no point. You sustained substantial injuries. Two of your ribs were broken and another 2 were cracked. The broken ribs caused some internal bleeding, which we managed to stop. They take a while to heal. You're pretty bruised as well. The pain medication will help for now, that's why your voice is so slurred," the doctor told me in a soft voice as if trying to soothe my pain.

I choked back my tears at hearing what he had done to me. Minako's eyes filled with tears as well. The doctor excused herself for a minute to give us a moment. "Minako!" I cried.

"Usagi, I know, Luna told me what happened, what had been happening. Why didn't you tell us?" Minako asked.

I tried to shrug but it hurt too much, so I answered her vocally instead. "I didn't know what to do. I was too scared that if I told anyone, he would hurt me more. I'm not brave or strong, Sailor Moon is brave, but I'm not."

"Usagi you listen to me," Minako said, looking me dead in the eye, "You are brave and strong. You suffered through this and stayed strong. You never gave up." Tears were running down both our faces. We cried for a while until all we could do was sniffle.

The doctor came back in and started to ask me a few questions like 'Does it hurt here?' or 'Can you move this?' It hurt like hell to put it lightly but it was over quickly. "Now Usagi," she said as she was filling out her chart, "Usagi Aino." I nodded, having a vague idea of what Minako told the doctor about who I was. "Your cousin tells me your parents are no longer a part of the picture," I nodded again, "Do you have some place to go? Older relatives to take care of you?"

I thought for a moment before nodded, "Yes, my sisters live in America. I was going to take a plane to join them in a few days but now…" I trailed off, not really knowing what to say. I saw Minako shoot me a quick questioning look when I mentioned sisters, but I ignored it for now.

"Ah, well," the doctor spoke. I turned my attention back to her. "It should be okay for you to travel in about a week. We will keep you for a few days more, but by next week this time, you should be well enough to travel. I can give you a medical pass for the airline if you wish."

I nodded, "Thank you doctor." She nodded at us and left. We were silent for a few moments before I spoke again, "How long was I out?"

Minako shrugged, "A couple hours, not too long. No body has come looking for you yet if that is what you mean."

"No but I'm sure they will," I murmured.

"I won't let anyone harm you Usagi," Minako said, determinedly. I nodded, not really believing what she was saying. How could she do anything? Minako looked at me, with a hesitant look in her eyes, "Usagi, you told the doctor that you were going to stay with your sisters…"

I heard the question in her voice, but I still could not control my own reaction. My eyes began to fill with tears that leaked trails of regret, sadness and longing down my cheeks. "I had forgotten them," my voice was just barely a whisper. I couldn't tell if Minako had heard me or not, but since she didn't ask for a repeat, I was confident she had. "It was a few night ago that I did remember," I continued, "my parents had sent me to bed without dinner because I was late coming home. It wasn't my fault that the scouts had wanted to meet to bitch about life. Anyways, I snuck downstairs later that night to find some food and I heard my parents talking in the living room." I closed my eyes, picturing the scene in my head. "Both of them were angry, and a little drunk…

_Flashback_

_ "She's becoming more and more like them," Ikuto spat after taking a sip of the drink in her hand, "what are we going to do?"_

_ "We'll just have to keep trying to beat those ridiculous ideas out of her, creativity, art, independence. Those two believed in those ideas and look what happened to them. They disgraced us by not following our wishes, seeking out to 'find themselves.' Well now they're dead, but it seems that they're clawing at Usagi from beyond the grave," Kenji spoke with venom in his voice._

_ "We can't let another disgrace to our family occur. We will have to break that willful spirit of hers, that cry for her own identity," Ikuto muttered, moving towards the window where her husband stood, his own drink long gone. "Why can't she be more like Chibi-Usa, or Shingo? They understand, and they strive to be perfect for us? Why did she have to be so free thinking, so much like them?"_

_ "All that's important is that we have to fix her, before she disgraces us? We can't let Akari and Hikaru's memory and ideal influence Usagi. We must break her, any way we can…_

_ End Flashback_

"… I was hiding just outside the door to the living room. I had heard the whole thing, and I remembered."

"Remembered?" There was a question in Minako's voice. I could hear it clearly.

Tears continued to leak out of the sides of my eyes, "Akari and Hikaru, they were-are my older sisters. Akari was 16 the last time I saw her, Hikaru was 14 almost 15. I was 7 and just about to turn 8."

"What were they like?" Minako asked.

"Hikaru was really funny, and a gifted musician. She wasn't very good at school though, but got by and Akari…" my voice trailed off when I thought of my oldest sister. "She was my hero. She taught me so many things like how to read, ride a bike, climb a tree… I think my first word was her name. She was always there for me; she was my best friend," I let out a barking laugh, but winced a little at the effort. When I was in better control of my self, I gave a soft smile, "She even taught me to read, write and speak English. She was fluent in Japanese, English and French. She was so smart, and strong, not that mom or dad ever saw that."

"They sound wonderful," Minako murmured, "What happened the last time you saw them?"

"I…" this was hard, "I'm trying to remember. It was summer, about a week from my birthday, and I was sitting in my room reading. I heard shouting downstairs. Ikuto and Kenji were arguing with my sisters again; that had been occurring often. Pretty soon, the shouting stopped and Hikaru came upstairs. Akari came up a little later…"

_Flashback_

_ "Hikaru!" I yelled, scampering over to the older girl. "What's going on? Where's Akari?"_

_ A forced smile appeared on Hikaru's face, "She's downstairs. She and the parental units are having another disagreement that's all."_

_ "Okay, well, it's almost my bedtime, do you think that they would hurry up so that she could tell me a story?" I asked, my child like mind flitting over the argument like it was nothing. _

_ "I'm sure she'll tell you a story when she gets done, but until then, how about we read one of those English storybooks that she got you?" Hikaru asked. _(I didn't really think much of it then, but she was probably trying to distract me from what was going on downstairs.)

_I pulled out my storybook and turned to "Cinderella." It was my favorite movie at the time, and my favorite fairy tale. Close to the end of the story, we heard a loud crash from downstairs, followed quickly by a scream and a loud thump. We froze, neither of us saying a word. A few minutes later, Akari came in and we gasped at seeing her. She had a cut that started above her right eye and crossed down under it. (_If she wasn't bleeding, then I probably would have said she looked like Scar from the Lion King. But she was my older sister and she was hurt.)

_"Akari!" Hikaru rushed over to her. I crawled off my bed and ran over to her. By that time, I had noticed that she also had cut's along her right arm. "What happened?" Hikaru asked her._

_ Akari gave a weak smile, "Just had a little accident that's all."_

_ Hikaru looked like she was going to say something, but didn't and left the room. I stared at Akari, fear obviously present in my eyes. I couldn't tell if Akari saw it or not, but she motioned my over to her and hugged me with her non-injured arm. "I'm fine Usagi," she told me, "just a little banged up that's all."_

_ I nodded my head against her stomach, feeling tears run down my face. Hikaru came back in with some stuff to clean Akari up, and I moved away to give her more room. She poured this awful smelling liquid on a cotton ball. Akari hissed when she rubbed it on her cuts, but didn't say anything else. I looked on fearfully, waiting for them to get done. Once Hikaru was done cleaning Akari's cuts and wrapping her arm, Akari motioned me over with her good arm. _

_ "I'm all right little one," she soothed, embracing me with again but with both arms, "I'm strong, I can take a little pain."_

_ I snuggled into her, seeking comfort and the warmth of my oldest sister. "Akari," I hesitated, "Will you tell me a story?" I looked up at her when I heard her chuckling. I saw Akari share a look with Hikaru, before nodding down at me._

_ I smiled at her, and crawled back into bed. Akari kneeled on the right side of my bed and took my right hand; Hikaru did the same on the left._

_ "Once upon a time," Akari began, "there were three sisters. These sisters were very close, each one willing to do anything for the other. There love was like nothing anyone had ever seen!"_

_ "What was it like?" I asked. (_It wasn't until later that I figured out she was talking about our relationship as sisters.)

_ "It was like," Akari paused, thinking, "like being held in a bright warm light in the softest bed, never wanting to leave."_

_ I smiled, "I like the sound of that."_

_ "Mhm, I bet you would. Anyway, not everyone liked the bond that they shared. Some even tried to destroy it!"_

_ "Why?" I couldn't believe it, wouldn't such a bond make people feel happy inside?_

_ "Well, I imagine some people were afraid of it, but I can only make guesses. So, many different people tried to destroy their bond, their connection, but it was someone close to them, that finally drove them apart. Breaking their bodies."_

_ "No!"_

_ Akari nodded. I started to cry, this was terrible, but Akari just smiled at me. "But you know what?" I shook my head, "No matter how badly they were hurt, their connection, their bond stayed strong."_

_ "Really! How?"_

_ "Because, love is in the heart, and stretches outward to others. It could not be broken; no matter how far apart they were, it stayed strong. And so, eventually, it led them back together, safe and when they were together again, they were whole and complete. And they lived happily ever after…" Akari finished. I was getting sleepy._

_ "Mhm, I'm glad," I yawned. Akari picked me up and tucked me in after assuring Hikaru that her arm was fine. Hikaru kissed my cheek goodnight and went downstairs to her's and Akari's room. Akari kissed my forehead and was getting ready to leave as well. "Akari," I whispered. She stopped and turned around to look at me. "Will I ever be as strong as you?"_

_ She smiled at me, and ran her fingers through my hair. "I want you to remember something that I learned long ago, do you think you can, for me?" I nodded. "Strength is something that you choose little one; it also comes from the heart."_

_ She kissed me again, and I drifted off to sleep…_

_ End Flashback_

"… The next day, I woke up and they were gone. Their room was a mess, with blood everywhere. I asked Ikuto and Kenji what happened, but they told me they didn't know. They later told me that Akari and Hikaru had died. I was so broken that I think I locked memories of them away," I looked up at the ceiling, studying the texture of it. "Slowly I forgot them, and all traces that they ever existed disappeared, like Mom and Dad were trying to deny their existence. I was moved into their room, and Shingo, when he was big enough was put in my room."

"Wow," Minako had tears in her eyes, "that's a heartbreaking story, and I'm so sorry. I never knew you had to go through something like that, but how do you know they are still alive and where they are?"

I smiled. Not a whole smile, just a half, but it was still a smile. "Our bond," I whispered, "it has always been there. The connection between us; it was just lost for a long time. Now, all I have to do is follow where it leads me."

Minako smiled, "I may not be there when you go, where ever you go, but I will always be around if you need me. I will always be there to support you."

"Thank you Minako," I croaked, tears in my eyes, "Thank you."

* * *

"Usagi!" Minako cried, walking into the room with a nurse, who was wheeling a wheel chair, "It's checkout day. I know a few felines who will be happy to see you when we get home!"

"Yay!" I yelled, trying not to move too much. I got a little too excited yesterday, playing cards with the Doc and Minako and accidentally strained my side. Hurt like hell too, so I'm trying not to over do it. "I've been here for two whole days, and, as much as I love you people, I'm ready to go… And see Luna too of course. How has she been doing?"

"Mopey, you can tell that she misses you and knows that something is wrong," Mina replied, not letting too much slip with the nurse there. The set a wheelchair in front of me, and helped me down into it. "Alright, time to go, I got the car my parents gave me sitting outside and my international license so we're all set," Minako chirped, bouncing down the hall next to me.

"Uh, how long until those medications kick in?" I asked the nurse, fear of my blonde "cousin's" driving skills evident in my voice.

She just smiled at me and patted my arm. The nurse helped me into Minako's bright orange VW bug, and I buckled my seat belt. Minako skipped over to the driver's side of the car (A/N: Remember, it's the right side of the car in Japan.) "Now remember Usagi-san," the nurse said, in a stern motherly kind of voice, "take it easy for a few days, no unnecessary running around. Minako-san, make sure she's here for her check-up on Friday."

Minako nodded in a serious sort of way, "I shall return her in two days time, and watch her like a hawk until then."

I rolled my eyes at the both of them. "See you in a couple days," I told my nurse as the car started and Minako maneuvered it out onto the road.

"As much as I loved the time I spent with you, I really am excited about going home," Minako said to me, turning on the radio using the controls on the steering wheel. She had stayed with me the whole time I was in the hospital, only going home once to get some clothes, and to feed Luna and Artemis. My vision started to become cloudy as the medications began to take effect. I drifted in and out of sleep, not wanting to go completely out since Minako's house wasn't that far away. Feeling the car slow down, I opened my one eye and tried to focus my bleary eyesight. We were in front of Minako's house. It wasn't huge, but it was good size, two stories. Her parents had returned to England a few months ago, but Minako had stayed behind, alone in this house. I felt like I should cry but I didn't think I could; my mind couldn't process much because of the medications, let alone the cry reflex.

"Alright in we go," Minako helped me out of the car and through the door. She laid me down on the couch. I didn't realize I fell asleep until someone started calling my name.

"Usaaagggiiii." I groaned at the sound of my name and opened my eyes. Luna was staring straight into my face and I almost screamed but I knew it would hurt too much. "It's almost dinner time," she told me, "You slept through lunch."

"I did?" I was groggy but my head didn't feel as fuzzy; the meds must have worn off some.

The small black cat nodded. "How do you feel?" She asked.

I smiled and rubbed her head, "I still feel like I've been run over by a truck, but not bad."

Minako walked in with what looked like two boxes of Chinese food and chops sticks. I raised my eyebrow at the boxes and she just shrugged, "I can't cook very well so I order out if I have to feed more than Artemis and I. Plus, there isn't any food here. I haven't had the chance to go shopping for a while."

I just nodded my head. It sounded like a good reason for take-out if I ever heard one. That and Chinese was my favorite. (A/N: Technically, Chinese is my favorite and I really want some right now, so that's why it is here.) We curled up on the couch and watched a movie. Minako and I discovered long ago that we shared our most favorite movie, "Ever After" in common, so we would watch that any chance we got. We both loved the Cinderella story concept; I think that's why we liked it so much.

I looked at the clock once the movie was over; it was only about 8:30 but I was exhausted. "Has anyone called looking for me yet?" I asked. Minako, Artemis and Luna all looked at me.

"Now that I think of it no," Artemis replied, "Which is weird considering you have been "missing" for a few days now."

I was about to reply when the phone rang. Minako looked at the caller ID. "It's your house," she whispered before she answered, "Hello? Oh hi Mrs. Tsukino." I held my breath as I waited for what my "mother" wanted. "No I haven't see Usagi, why is something wrong?" She was looking right at me when she said that, "She ran away! Why?" _Minako is a wonderful actor… _"Well that doesn't seem like a very good reason to me, she's just being a baby." I really wanted to know what she had told her. "Don't worry, if I see her I'll call you. Alright, goodbye Mrs. Tsukino."

"What did she tell you?" I asked. I had to know.

Minako made a face, "She told me that you hadn't told them about getting kicked out of school, and when they found out, they grounded you for a few months and took your allowance away. That's why you ran-away. I don't think she's called anyone else though."

I shook my head, "I doubt she will. Well, not anyone that has known the family for long. She'll might call Mamoru or the other scouts; she would never call the police, too many questions would be asked."

"Understandable," Minako nodded. Kenji and Ikuto would hate to have anyone poking and finding something they would rather not have people knowing. Their image was very important to them.

I felt tears coming to my eyes again, and I tried to hold them in but they feel anyway. Minako grasped my hand and looked at my face, worry was evident on her face. "What' wrong?" she asked.

"I'm just scared," I gasped, "I don't want them to find me, any of them. I just want to be left alone."

"Don't worry Usagi, we'll figure something out," she assured me. Something in her voice moved me and I had no choice but to believe her.

* * *

One week later, I found myself at the airport saying goodbye to Minako and Artemis. Minako had a friend who got me a passport under another name, so that, in case my parents or the scouts did decide to look for me, they wouldn't be able to find me. I pulled away from hugging Minako, tears running down my face. Luna was in a cat carrier next to me. Because of my medical issues, the airline had given me a seat in first class free of charge and allowed Luna to stay with me, as long as she stayed in her carrier.

"I'm going to miss you so much Usagi," Minako cried, tears streaming down her face as well.

I sniffed, "Me too, but we can keep in touch through email. As soon as I find my sisters, I'll get a computer and get in touch with you."

"Are you going to tell me where you are?"

I thought for a moment, before shaking my head. "No, I need time to heal, and to find myself. I have a feeling that when the time comes, we'll meet again, and don't feel that you need to stay in Japan, you don't have to."

Minako nodded, "I know, I'm probably going to call my parents and move back to England, but what about _them."_

My breath caught in my throat and my eyes narrowed, "They can suck it for all I care. Their powers will start to fade because of their betrayal. I know enough about the silver crystal to know that it doesn't take things like this lightly."

Minako grinned, an evil sort of smirk at the prospect. "I wish I could see their faces when that happens," she sighed, smirk still in place.

I just laughed at her and she joined me soon enough. Our laughter faded when the boarding call for my flight was announced. "Well," I said, "this is it."

"Yeah," Minako nodded. She hugged me again, and pulled away after a moment. I could tell she was holding back tears when I motioned one of the flight attendants over to help me with Luna's carrier and my carry-on. "Have a good time Usagi! And don't forget to let me know when you get there."

I smiled at my best friend. "I will Minako, tell Artemis I said bye and that I'll see you again at some point," I called back to her as I followed the attendant onto the plane. She helped me into my seat in first class and placed Luna in the seat next to me. The airline was being extra nice.

As I waited for the plane to take off, I experienced several different emotions coursing through me. Nervousness, sadness, fear, happiness, excitement, I was covering the whole spectrum of emotions. While I was excited and happy to be able to see my sisters again, I was also nervous and afraid that they might have forgotten me or changed, that they wouldn't want me. I was also sad that I was leaving my friends and the only place that I had ever known, though it could no longer be called my home.

I buckled my seat belt as I felt the plane start to move, and as I looked out the window I saw the blur of the Japanese landscape grow smaller and smaller as the plane ascended into the clouds. "We're on our way Luna," I whispered to my dozing cat. The travel medications I gave her earlier knocked her out, "To our new life."

* * *

**A/N:** Whoa, did ya'll see that one coming? Yes, Queen Serenity is technically the enemy in this story (she might not be the only one, we shall see what develops), but remember, this is AUish, so there is a reason for my madness. But the true enemy in this story is fear, jealousy and prejudice, basically the seven deadly sins. People fear what they don't understand and they try to destroy it, especially if it doesn't fit into their lovely little cookie cutter molds that they have made (hello, Salem Witch Trials). If you don't like Queen Serenity, just stop reading. And don't flame me because of it, my story, my rules.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Alright guys, I'm so sorry this chapter is so late. I just couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong with it. I couldn't figure it out, so I decided to post it anyway. Alright, big things in this chapter. You get to meet Usagi's sisters, and there is some name changing involved but a person's name is the first thing that defines them. If a person wants to change completely, then the name has to go as well, and with the past that Usagi and her sisters have, don't you think they would want different names?

Also, the house that I am attempting to describe in this chapter is like my dream house with a couple extra features. I don't give it justice, but since I made the whole thing up, your just gonna have to trust me that it is spectacular. I apologize for grammatical mistakes. OCs are mine, so don't steal them, or I will stop this story and sic my readers on you. This chapter is a big step in Usagi's development and since this is a first hand account, first-person, the character has to develop.

I think that's it, please review once you're done with the chapter. Tally-ho!

**Chapter 3**

I walked off the plane in New York City and finally felt like I was home. Following a feeling wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. It led me through Los Angeles and Chicago, but it was misdirection, as if they had been there but moved on. Of course, it was rather convenient that the airline I had been taking routed me through all of those cities… and a couple more of course. Airlines are so annoying.

I sighed when I got into the waiting room and collapsed on one of the benches. "What do we do now Usagi?" Luna whispered from her cage.

"Luna, I thought we agreed when we stopped in Los Angeles that I was going to use an Americanized name," I whispered back before answering her, "but as to your question I don't know."

"Right right, what did we agree on for your knew name?"

I scrunched my nose for a minute, "Wasn't it Serena?"

"Yeah that was it," Luna whispered back. We both fell silent, content to just sit and watch the people rush around the busy airport. Just as I was getting ready to leave and find someplace to go, I heard an older but extremely familiar voice. It had a slight French accent to it, but I knew that voice.

"Merde! I am just trying to locate my luggage you petit imbecile. I was told that it would be back by now, but I find out that it is in Russia somewhere! Vous êtes une personne incompétente!" I located the person that the voice was coming from, a very irate looking woman at the lost luggage counter. She had light blonde hair that appeared to have a bluish tint to it, I would recognize that hair anywhere but I had to make sure.

I walked up behind the person who was walking away from lost luggage mumbling words in French that I could only assume were a few choice words. I tapped on her shoulder and when she turned towards me, we both gasped. I was starring into eyes that were just a few shades darker than my own and ones that were very familiar to me. "Hikaru?" I whispered, disbelief evident in my voice.

"Usagi," she murmured. I could hear the shock in her voice. I nodded my head, tears in my eyes. A broad grin spread across her face and she grabbed me to her in a tight hug. I squeaked a little at the pressure on my still broken ribs. Hikaru released me automatically. "What's wrong?" She asked.

I winced again at the pain in my abdomen. "I, huh, broke a few of my ribs…" I murmured.

"What?" She hissed, her face angry and concerned. I looked away, not ready to see all those emotions. I did notice, however, that quite a few people were starring at us.

"Hikaru," I said hesitantly, "there are people starring at us."

"Eh," she said, finally looking around, "There are! Merde, alright, we better take this somewhere else, do you have anywhere to stay, or is anyone meeting you?"

I shook my head, "No I, uh, I ran away and I just ended up here." A little white lie, I didn't know how to tell her the truth.

Hikaru looked confused, but nodded anyway, "Alright, is this everything that you have." She motioned towards my carry-on and Luna's cat carrier. I nodded and she took my carry-on and motioned for me to follow her. However, before we got to the door, a little boy with unruly hair came up to us and looked at Hikaru with big eyes and a pen and a piece of paper in his hand.

"Ms. Stella," he said hesitantly, "can- can I have your autograph please."

My sister chuckled as she knelt down and took the pen and piece of paper from the boy's hand. "What's your name little one?" Hikaru asked.

"Alexander, but everyone calls me Alex," the boy gruffed, fidgeting with the cuffs on his jacket, "I want to be a famous musician like you when I grow up."

"Really? What instrument do you play?" Hikaru questioned, writing something on the girl's paper.

"I really like the trumpet!" The he exclaimed, "I've just started lessons, but since I'm only five we aren't doing much more than learning the scales." He made a face at that.

Hikaru laughed, "I remember those days. I can play the trumpet myself, and it is one of my favorite instruments. The basics can be frustrating, but they are important." She stood up and handed him back his paper and pen, "If you keep practicing, maybe one day we can play together, how about that." The boy's eyes grew huge and he nodded his head vigorously, "Good, now scat, I think your parents are waiting for you." The boy turned and ran back to his parents, who were a few meters behind us. They all waved at us, before turning back to catch their flight.

"What was that about?" I asked Hikaru as we left the building.

She just chuckled, "I guess you don't read up on music news. Anyway, my name now is Stella, if you didn't manage to get that and I'm a classical musician."

I stared blankly at her, before I came back to life. "Wow that is so cool Hik- er, Stella," she smiled at the use of her name. I guess the name Hikaru has bad memories for her like Usagi does for me. "Do you do solo concerts and stuff?" I asked.

Stella shrugged, "I don't like to, normally I play with a symphony as the lead chair, but I do play solo more often now though." She sighed, "I really like playing with other people though."

I couldn't help but laugh at her expression. It was a mixture between frustration and a pout. After I calmed down, I looked around. We had been walking while talking and I had no idea where we were going. Suddenly, Hik- Stella, _that's gonna take a while to get used to,_ touched my shoulder and motioned me to a forest green jeep wrangler. I could tell it was one of the newer models. Stella opened the door on the right side, which I quickly recalled was the passenger side in America, and tossed my carry-on in the back seat.

"Now who do we have here?" Stella said, taking the cat carrier from my hands and setting it on the seat. She unlatched it and let Luna out.

"This is Luna," I said, scratching my guardian's head behind the ears, just like she liked it.

Stella rubbed her back, giving her a kind of petting massage. Luna purred appreciatively. This caused my sister to coo at her, "Awe, aren't you so cute! You'll fit right in at home."

I climbed into the jeep with Stella's help, and buckled my seat belt. "Where is home, Stella?" I asked after she had climbed into the driver's seat and started the vehicle.

"Well," she started, pulling out the parking lot and into the bustling and busy streets, "just a little ways out of town, in the Catskills Mountains. We like our privacy and it's rather convenient driving into town from there, rather pretty."

"W-we?" I stuttered. I scarcely dared to hope.

"Well didn't you wonder where your other sister was?" Stella chuckled, my breath caught in my throat. "She's on a little vacation from work right now, so she should be at the house painting or some other such nonsense, however she spends her days."

My heart clenched, and starting beating faster than before. I would get to see Akari, we would be a family again. "Dawn," Stella said, breaking through my thoughts.

"What?" I asked, confused.

"Akari, she changed her name to Dawn, suits her doesn't it."

"Yes," I murmured, "Yes it does." The rest of the ride was spent in a comfortable silence. Stella had turned on the radio and I was rocking out to the music. I had always liked music in English way better than music in Japanese. Pretty soon we were deep in the Catskills mountain area, and Stella turned the jeep down a gravel path. I held my breath as I waited. I could feel the bond getting stronger than it did when I ran into Stella at the airport. Ak- Dawn was nearby; my real family would be back together again. I let my breath out in amazement as a house came into view. House isn't exactly the right word for it, but it took my breath away. The entire structure appeared to be made out of stone and looked like a mixture between a modern house and a medieval castle. A semi-turret was located on one corner of the house, while the roof of the house pointed up in several places like gables. It was about 3 floors with a basement but I was only guessing.

We pulled up to the house and stopped. Stella took one look at my face and started laughing, which was understandable; I was gaping at a house after all.

"Come on," Stella said, motioning me out the car, "Let's go." I opened the door on my side and step out. Luna followed after me and Stella scooped her up, cooing and petting her. "We're gonna be good friends aren't we Luna, and I know that Dawn will love you too." Luna just purred in agreement, content that she was going to get continuous affection here.

I smiled at them as we turned to walk up the stairs of the front porch to the door, my insides jumping all around. Stella opened the door and walked through with me following right after her. "Dawn," Stella called out. I held my breath.

"Stella? Back so soon? Did the airport not have your luggage or did they throw it at you as you walked in," a voice called. I knew that voice too. It was also slightly older, but still had that same warm quality I remembered.

"No I didn't get my luggage, don't remind me, but I found something else that you're gonna want to see," Stella replied, rolling her eyes at me.

"What is it?"

"Just come here," Stella yelled, exasperated.

"All right, all right, I'm coming," I heard the soft approach of footsteps from the right. I looked up as I heard a gasp, "Usagi?"

I saw her, and my eyes filled with tears. I had been afraid that she had changed somehow, become different than the person I knew. In front of me was an older version of the sister I remembered. She was different, but still the same. She had grown older, matured, but still present in her eyes was the same kindness and compassion that I missed. Her hair had grown longer, just down to her middle back it looked like. It was pale blond but as it went down it became a vibrant golden blonde. Her faced matured, as had the rest of her. I forced back the tears that had been threatening to fall. "Dawn," I croaked, unable to say anything else. She smiled, the type of smile I had been missing for all of these years. The tears that I had been holding back refused to be contained any longer as they broke out and raced down my face to freedom. I threw myself into my oldest sister's arms, not caring the pain it caused to my ribs because the relief in my heart at being back with my family overrode the pain.

I stood and cried against Dawn's shoulder for a couple minutes. She rubbed my back soothingly and waited until she was sure I had finished crying before moving us down the hall to what appeared to be the living room. During my crying fit, Stella had disappeared down another hall to the left, and reappeared when we sat down in the living room, Kleenex in hand. I blew my nose on the offered tissue before taking a chance to look around at the different parts of the house I could see from the insanely comfortable couch I was sitting on. The living room was directly in front of the front door. I could see the dining room and kitchen from where I was. It was to the left of the front door, so it would be on the right for anyone entering the house. There weren't any full walls separating the living room from the entranceway, or the dining room and kitchen. Instead there were half walls with columns at certain locations from the top of the half wall to the ceiling to support it. The living room was spacious, but also cozy. The couch that we were on was located on the sidewall, with an entertainment center located on the opposite wall. A fireplace was a couple feet away and to the right of the entertainment center, in what was probably the middle of the house. A love seat sat against the half wall for the living room, and a couple recliners were positioned around the room. An opening that led to a spiral staircase was to the left of the entertainment center.

"Usagi." Dawn's voice broke me out of my observations and I turned to her. She was seated to the right of me on the couch; her face was worried. I knew that she had felt the bandages when she rubbed my back, and she wanted an explanation for everything. Stella was behind her, standing and leaning on the couch. She was looking at me pointedly, wanting an explanation as well. I sighed, knowing it would be better to tell them everything now, and get it out in the open… Well not the senshi mess, for some reason I did not want them to know about that, any of it. I would tell them eventually, just not now. So I told them about what happened with my "friends" after some editing, our parents, not sparing any detail, and everything that happened after at the hospital and at Minako's house.

After I had finished, Dawn was in tears and Stella was furious. Dawn held me as I cried silently while Stella fully entered the room and began pacing. "That bastard," she vented, her eyes boiling with rage, "I can't believe that he would do this again, that either of them would. They haven't changed a bit."

"We should have known," Dawn murmured, shaking her head.

"What do you mean?" I asked, sitting up fully again to look at her.

Dawn shook her head and sighed, "Kenji and Ikuto did the same thing to me the night, well, the night that we disappeared."

"Yeah, but about ten times worse," Stella muttered, anger still evident in her voice.

"Anyway," Dawn said, shooting Stella a look that appeared to say 'shut up' before continuing, "He almost killed me with his rage. Stella got me out and to a hospital. We thought that they would change after that night, not knowing what happened to us, but apparently we thought wrong. We should have known that he would punish you for being like us, for wanting more out of life."

I stared at them in disbelief, "So you knew he was like this, and you just left me there?" I tried to stand up to get away from them, but Dawn grabbed my arms and held me in place.

She looked me straight in the eye and said, "Usagi, I know you have put me on some type of pedestal in your mind because of all of these years apart. I was just sixteen Usagi, same age as you are right now, I didn't know what to do. I was scared and hurt, and I thought with us gone, they would leave you alone, but I was wrong. Seeing you here now, hurt and broken, kills me a little inside that I could have done something to prevent that, and if I could go back and change what I did, I would. But I can't, and we have to move on and live with the decisions we made. You made the decision to come here, now what are you going to do?"

I shook my head. I didn't know. She was right. I had idealized her to almost the point of no return, but I didn't want to go back home now, not after everything that has happened. I wanted to stay here, and get to know my sisters all over again. "I… I think I just need to lie down for awhile and think," I murmured finally.

Dawn nodded and helped me up off the couch. "I'll give you a quick tour around the house before I show you to your room," she told me, walking a head of me out of the living room back into the spacious entryway. I followed behind her meekly; it was clear that she was upset, but I wasn't sure if she was upset at me or not.

I took a good look around me and gasped at what I saw. I hadn't noticed it at first, but the half walls, and walls that made up the hallways were littered with murals after murals of different natural wonders of the world, mostly forests and mountains. I was standing in front of the door again, facing the interior as I had done just a short while ago. The kitchen and dinning room were to the right. The dinning room was very well decorated and placed, giving a formal setting, while the kitchen with the island and barstools seemed very informal. It was large and spacious, a half wall and columns separated the kitchen space and the dinning room, keeping the formal and informal parts of the dinning experience separated. We didn't go down the right hallway leading past the kitchen, instead we took a left down the hall Stella disappeared. The room next to the entryway that I couldn't see into to from the living room as it was only room at the front of the house with full walls and an actual door. Dawn opened the door for me, and I saw a type of study area complete with desk and a coffee machine.

My sister continued down the hall, and pointed at the next doorway on the right, "This is the downstairs bathroom, it has a full bath in it, normal size however. It is mainly used by people visiting the house for the day or such." I nodded my head, signaling her that she didn't have to open the door. At the end of the hall I could see a door that was open already, but only halfway. Dawn pushed the door open the rest of the way so that I could see in. "This is Stella's room," she said, motioning to Stella flopped out on the bed. I gaped at the room, looking around in wonder. It was comfortable furnished, and screamed Stella. The walls were painted like a forest scene, with illusionary sunlight hitting the forest floor, falling across plants and animals living there. A small reddish brown dog was lounging on the window seat, facing the side of the house. Dawn whistled and the dog trotted over to her.

"This is Essie," Dawn said, patting the dog's head. She came just about to Dawn's knee and had long silky hair.

"She's so cute," I said, bending down to pet her.

Dawn nodded, "Yeah, she's pretty cool. She stays in here with Stella or she runs around outside. She shouldn't bother Luna too much. Anyway, as you can tell via the lump on the bed and the mess," an indignant 'hey' came from said lump, "this is Stella's room. She has a private bathroom through that door," she pointed to the door on the other wall, "and a sound proof room behind that in order to practice."

"Sound proof?" I asked.

"Yeah," Stella said this time, "I like to practice at strange hours and this one," pointing at Dawn, "likes to sleep."

"I sleep at night, like normal people," Dawn clarified, rolling her eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, and up with the sun, that's just not normal. I sleep at night as well, thank you very much, just majority of it is in the AM hours," Stella also clarified.

Dawn shook her head and motioned me back out the door. I followed her back down the hallway. I thought we were going to venture back down past the kitchen, but she turned into the living room and walked over to the spiral staircase. "You better get Luna," Dawn said, as she started up the stairs.

I motioned my guardian over to me, and we followed the older girl up one floor. Dawn stepped out of the staircase to the opening on the second floor level, which faced the back of the house. I realized we stepped out into a hallway, and I winced a little as I turned too quickly to get a good look at what was around me. "Are you alright?" Dawn asked, probably seeing the pain on my face. I nodded, still looking around. "All right, well, the ceiling for the living room continues all the way up to the bottom of the third floor, so there isn't that much on the second floor. This hallway covers the only part of the living room that has a lower ceiling, and it's at the very back of the house so no one notices."

"How did you come up with all this?" I asked, referring to the house.

Dawn smiled, "A really good friend of mine designed this house as a project, and I loved the concept so he built it for me."

"A friend?" I asked, wiggling my eyebrows suggestively.

She smacked me lightly on the shoulder before continuing down the hall. I looked around me; these walls were made to look like walls from an ancient stone castle, with lights on the walls that look like torches. Some paintings hung on the wall, scenes from ancient mythology, with fantastical creatures, like unicorns, frolicking in peace, or others, such as dragons, doing battle with knights. It was really, really cool. We turned the corner, and came to another hallway decorated the same way. "Alright," Dawn said, motioning to the first door on the right, "This room is the guest room. There is a shared bathroom in between this room, and the one that will be your room, not many people drop by and actually stay." We walked further down to the other end of the hall, and Dawn motioned to the wooden door, "This is your room."

I hesitated for a moment before turning the doorknob and pushing the door open. Stepping inside the room, I gasped at what I saw. The two walls that faced the inside of the house were decked out like the hallway, similar to that of an ancient castle, but more modern and well lit. But it was the outer two walls that drew my eye. They were decorated in scenes from the frozen north. Spruce, Pine and other trees native to the area were placed throughout the mural, while the Northern lights, the moon and stars blazed in the sky onto the ceiling. Elegant white and grey wolves were scattered through the landscape in different areas.

"I always hoped you would end up here one day, not like this mind you, but I never stopped believing that when you were grown, you would track us down somehow," Dawn explained as I touched one of the wolves' face.

Its golden eyes seemed almost luminescent as they stared into my own. I turned back to Dawn with wonder in my eyes. "You remembered? All of these years, and you remembered my favorite animal. You made this room for me, hoping that I would come here."

"Well," Dawn started, walking into the room, "It hasn't been all that long. The house wasn't built until I graduated from college, but I did graduate early, so it was just about 4 or 5 years."

I ran to her and hugged her briefly before turning back to look at the room. The furniture was all stained hardwood, as well as the floor, adding to the theme of the room, and the elegant feel it gave. The bed stood against the wall to the right of the door; a bedside table and lamp were on it's left, while a door, presumably leading to the closet, was on the right. Another hard wood door stood in the far corner of the room, on the shared wall with the neighboring room. Dawn opened the door and it revealed a full size bathroom, complete with a Jacuzzi bath, walk in shower, and practically everything else I would need. The door to the bathroom from the guest room was locked, so I didn't need to open it. Dawn opened the other door in the room, and revealed a full walk in closet that ran the length of the entire wall behind my bed.

"Well that's convenient," I muttered, looking at the space I had in the closet. I didn't have anything to go in the closet, or the dresser that sat against the shared wall. "Dawn, I…" I didn't know what to say, it was all too much.

"Don't worry about it," Dawn said, "We're going to go shopping sometime in the next couple days to get you some stuff that will make you feel more at home. That is, after we get you checked out by a doctor, and get everything sorted out about you living in this country now."

Tears came to my eyes at her words; even with how rotten I was earlier, Dawn still cared about me. I sat down on the bed, too overcome with emotion to do anything else. "I do want to stay," I finally managed to say.

Dawn looked at me puzzled, "Well we weren't going to kick you out or anything, but we do need to get a few things worked out. That stuff can't wait for a while though. You have been through an awful lot in the last week or so, and with the flight, I think it would be best if you slept for a while, get your thoughts in order."

I nodded, pulling the covers down on the bed, but before I climbed in, something else crossed my mind. "We didn't get to your room," I tried to protest, before being shushed and pushed back to bed.

"We'll cover that another day," Dawn smiled, helping me situate myself in bed without hurting my ribs.

I hummed in response, the tiredness from my trip starting to catch up to me. "Dawn," I murmured sleepily, one last thing I had to take care of before I could surrender to sleep. She hummed in response, letting me know that she was listening. "Could you help me change my name to Serena? I don't want to be Tsukino Usagi anymore, I want to start over."

She smiled at me and brushed the hair out of me face. "I'll see what I can do," she promised, before leaving the room.

"What do you think Luna?" I asked my guardian, who had curled up next to me in the dark blue sheets of my new bed.

"I like your sisters," she replied, letting a big cat meow, "they seem nice, and they honestly love you very much." I hummed in response, trying to see out the dark blue curtains on the window. I'm guessing it would be about late afternoon, but I wasn't sure. "I think this place will be good for us," Luna continued, getting even more comfortable, "at least it will be a welcome break from the senshi mess that late queen forced on you, and the tense atmosphere of the Tsukino home." I hummed again in agreement before I let sleep fully claim my senses.

* * *

And there we go, this was way different then what I had written before hand, so I guess that's why it took so long. Drop a review, or a line telling me how you felt (no flames, I ignore them) Or just ask general questions, I don't give hints unless you give a good review... lengthy, with substance

Artistia


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Life sucks, just thought I should tell you that. It's been forever since I've been able to update, cuz this semester kicked my ass, and I just got back in the country. One thing right after another. Anyway, I'm hoping that part one (this part) only has about 2 or 3 chapters still in it. I'm not quite sure since this part of the story is still in editing. The second part is already set in stone, because it basically explains the story (it's awesome, you people will love it. I am one twisted person). Anywho, more OC's in this chapter, and if any of you are paying attention, you'll understand what I'm doing with these people. There will be more, as well as familiar faces (not the scouts, they are not in Part one). I tried to edit this chapter, but I figured you guys would take it unedited as long as it was something. I apologize profusely for the wait.

**Chapter 4**

I blinked as the world came into focus. Slowly becoming aware of my surroundings, I sat up, looking around for Luna but the black cat was nowhere to be found. I moved to the window and pushed the curtains back; it was dark outside. _How long have I been asleep?_ One thing I did know is that I felt really cruddy, and needed a shower. I walked into the bathroom and found a change of clothes in there consisting of a pair of gray sweatpants, an oversized dark blue t-shirt, a sports bra, and underwear. Fingering the sweatpants, I realized it would be the easiest thing to wear with my ribs injured the way they are. _My sisters are too awesome._

I showered as best as I could, trying to keep the bandages around my waist from getting wet. I really just wanted to wash my hair and face, and ask for help later. I dressed, and made my way back down the stairs.

"Hey sleepy head," I heard Dawn call from the couch, waving a piece of pizza, "Grub's in the kitchen, feel free to grab a slice… or three."

I felt the grumble in my stomach and acquiesced to the need for food. Sitting on the island in the kitchen were two large pizzas. "Mhm, vegetarian and Hawaiian, my favorite," I murmured, putting a slice of each on a plate before moving back into the living room. "What we watching?" I asked sitting down on the other end of the couch. Luna, who was curled up next to Dawn, moved over to me, and looked at me with big pitiful eyes before I finally gave in and gave her a piece of ham off my pizza.

"Whose Line is it Anyway?" Dawn replied, pizza in one hand, the remote in the other, "I have the box set and needed a good laugh."

"Understandable," I said, taking a huge bite out of my veggie pizza. I looked around for a moment before asking, "Where's Stella?"

Dawn chuckled, "She's on a blind date tonight."

"What?"

"Yeah, her best friend wanted to go out tonight with her boyfriend, so she set Stella up with someone."

"When is she going to be back and how long have I been asleep?"

"You've been out for about a day. We were going to wake you up earlier but decided to let you sleep. Stella will be back soon, these things never really last long."

I looked at her confused, "What do you mean?"

"Stella hates dating, but even worse, she hates blind dates. They don't ever go to long…" Dawn trailed off when the front door slammed open, "Right on time, Hey Stella, there's pizza in the kitchen."

I wasn't too sure what she mumble, but I did hear a "Know-it all bitch" in there someone. Dawn and I snickered as Stella walked into the living room carrying one of the entire pizzas into the room. "Don't say a word," Stella grumbled as she plopped onto one of the recliners with her prized pizza.

"Was it that bad?"

"It was worse," Stella wailed as she picked up a piece of the pizza and bit into it, "Hailey was no help; she and TJ just kept looking goo-goo eyes at each other, leaving me to deal with a pompous narcissistic jerk."

"What did you do?" I asked. I wanted to be a part of this dynamic that the two of them had created, and it seemed that they would let me.

"Dumped my glass of wine on him when he tried to feel me up, and hailed a taxi home," the frosty one mumbled through the pizza that she was currently inhaling.

I glanced at Dawn and she seemed amused. "What happened to Hailey and TJ?"

"The hell if I care," Stella shouted, "She was the one that got me into this mess."

A knock on the door came, as well as a muffled "Stella…"

"Ah, there's Hailey now. It's open," Dawn called, laughing as Stella keep mumbling and grumbling into the piece of pizza that she was devouring, currently on her second slice.

A few seconds later a young woman in her early 20's, about Stella's age, entered the room followed by a man around the same age. The young woman had choppy dirty blonde hair that went a little passed her shoulders and brilliant toffee colored eyes, while the guy she was with had sleek, dark bluish hair that brushed the back of his neck and ocean blue eyes. "Oh," the girl said, seeing me, "I didn't know you had company."

"Well, not technically," Dawn started, "Guys this is Serena, our little sister. She decided to come live with us for now. Serena this is…"

"I'm Hailey," the girl said, "Hailey Harrison, and before you ask, everybody in my family has names that begin with 'h' it's a family tradition." I giggled at her exuberance and bubbly nature. I could see Stella being best friends with someone like this, despite how un-bubbly Stella is at times. "And this is my boyfriend," Hailey continued, introducing me to the guy next to her.

"Triton James Huntington the fourth," he introduced himself with a slight British accent, "Everyone just calls me TJ."

"It's nice to meet you, but I think you should concern yourselves more with the storm brewing on the recliner than with me at the moment," I advised, pointing to hurricane Stella brewing just past the horizon. The two gulped and turned to face anger filled dark blue eyes that appeared to have lightning flashing in them. When Hailey and TJ were introducing themselves, Dawn had disappeared into the kitchen, and now reappeared, holding a bowl of popcorn.

"I wouldn't ever want to have Stella mad at me," Dawn whispered, "but it is still funny as hell whenever she blows up at somebody." She handed me the bowl of popcorn. I grabbed a handful and waited for the impending storm.

Hailey and TJ's faces looked terrified. I would be too if Stella's temper was as explosive as I remember it being. "Stella," Hailey started, hesitantly. Said girl stared at her, the promise of painful torture and death in her eyes if she didn't like what the two in front of her had to say. "Um, well," the air seemed to have gone out of Hailey's courage, "TJ and I wanted to say that we were, um, sorry for setting you up with Dalton, right TJ?"

TJ nodded emphatically, "Yeah, I didn't realize he was such an ass. I mean, I shared a suite with him in college and never realized how bad he was."

Dawn and I held our breath, waiting to see if the apology would be enough to extinguish Stella's short fuse. Finally, she sighed, "Alright fine, just don't do it again."

That was enough for Hailey apparently because she exploded back to life, "We won't, I promise, I have someone better in mind for you. He's super nice, ooh you'll love him. I'll call you with the details sometime, and we need to hangout sometime this week, get our nails done or something." The whole time Hailey was babbling, Stella kept trying to interrupt her, but she wasn't getting very far. "Oh look at the time," Hailey said, seeing the time on the TV, "We have to go. It was nice meeting you Serena. I hope to see you around sometime." And with that, both Hailey and TJ disappeared out the door. I laughed at Stella's deflated expression, before stealing a piece of the Hawaiian pizza that she had abducted from the kitchen.

Suddenly, a golden cat jumped up on the couch next to Dawn and started to rub its head on her arm. "No," Dawn said, lifting her pizza out of reach, "You'll get none from me; you've already had your dinner." The cat then turned to me and studied me for a moment, before rubbing its head on my arm as well. I laughed and handed the feline a piece of ham like I did with Luna, before petting the cat's head.

"What's his name?" I asked, as the cat moved on to the other occupant of the room.

"That's Sasha," Dawn replied, "She's a bit of an attention hog. She usually stays in my room, but has been known to wander around. Luna hasn't seemed to have a problem with her, except for when she tried to steal some of Luna's food." I laughed, imagining a yellow ball of fur being chased around by a black one. It was an amusing visual to be sure.

"So what happened while I was asleep," I asked, wondering what I missed that day.

"Well," Dawn started, "Stella got her luggage back, just in time to leave again it would seem."

"Where are you going?" I asked, turning to my other sister.

"Philadelphia," was the answer, "I'm playing there for a couple weeks. Then I'm flying out to San Francisco, then back here, and then back to France until the New Year."

I blinked, "You've got the next five months planned out?"

She shrugged, "Yeah, such is the life of a musician."

"Anyway," Dawn continued, "I also called the California State government to get a copy of your birth certificate, which should be arriving tomorrow as I asked for it to be expressed shipped…"

"Why would they have my birth certificate?" I asked, confused.

Dawn looked confused as well, "You don't know? Oh, they probably wouldn't tell you. Even though the Tsukino's were Japanese citizens, Kenji worked in California for a while with his company. The three of us were born there, in this country, and therefore qualified for U.S. citizenship. But when Ikuto found out she was pregnant with, what's his name, Shingo? They decided to move back to Japan for their son to be born. You were only three or four I think."

I was stunned that those people had hid this from me all of these years. "Is that why I speak and understand English way better than Japanese?"

"Yup," Stella confirmed, "Dawn and I were the ones that spoke to you most often, and it was usually in English. Hell, your first word was 'Akari'."

My eyes welled with tears as Dawn continued where she left off before. "We've gotten most of the stuff settled for you to stay in this country, with me as your legal guardian until you turn 18. The only thing left is to sort out the name business and to get you checked out at a doctor."

I nodded and asked about the name business.

Stella answered the question when she saw Dawn eyeing the half eaten piece of pizza in front of her. "We know you want your name changed to Serena, we just need to know a last name."

"Well what's your last name?"

"Parker, this late middle-aged couple adopted us when we got to this country, so when we changed our names, we took their last names."

I thought about it for a minute. "Would they let me take their last name as well?"

Stella nodded, "Yep, called them earlier today after my luggage was returned to me and Dawn was trying not to cuss out the guy from California state department." An indignant 'shut-up' came from my left as Dawn was trying to finish eating her pizza and keeping it away from Sasha. "Anyway, they agreed and were ecstatic to have another daughter to spoil and dote on, in other words, they can't wait to meet you. They said they were going to fly in sometime this week."

"Where do they live?" I asked, curious.

At this, Stella rolled her eyes, "England. They spend their summers there. They have a house here and another in the South of France where they spend their winters."

My eyes bugged out and my mouth dropped open. "Wha-?"

"Yeah, they have a good bit of money, not entirely sure what they did to get all of it," Stella looked a bit perplexed for a moment, "I'm pretty sure Mum inherited some of but Dad invented something when he was younger that was also lucrative."

"You don't know?"

"We don't ask," Dawn clarified, having finished her pizza. "Mum and Dad love us, and provide us with help when we need it. They helped pay for our education, but most importantly, they support us with whatever we want to do. We don't really need to know what they did in their lives because it isn't that important."

I thought about what she said and nodded my head, though one question did come to the forefront of my mind. "What do you do?" I asked Dawn, making Stella snort, trying to hold in laughter.

"Do I have to tell you?" Dawn whined. Stella burst out laughing, and I was intrigued.

"Wow, you really must have been living under a rock," Stella said after gaining control of herself.

I was confused. "What do you mean?"

Stella chuckled again, "Well, despite being on her way to become a world renowned artist, Dawn here is also a very prominent actress and Broadway starlet."

My eyes bugged out, and my mouth fell open as I stared at my blushing sister in shock. "Don't look at me like that," Dawn protested, "I went to a magnet school for the arts, and then graduated from Juilliard. There is something that I want to accomplish, and this is the best way to do it."

"And that is?"

Dawn grinned; she almost looked feral. "Revenge. The best way to get back at our lovely abusive parents is to show them that we are better than they are, better than they ever will be."

I thought about it for a moment, and agreed with her logic. "What is this school? Did you go there too?" I asked Stella.

Stella puffed up, "Sure did, graduated top of my class. It's a really good school, focused more on the visual aspect of learning. Ya don't even have to be good at any of the fine arts, just appreciate them for what they are. It's a great place."

"I was going to ask you later in the week if you wanted to go check it out, since you need to go to school, but I didn't know if you were ready to be around people yet with everything that has happened," Dawn told me.

"When does the school year start?"

Dawn thought for a moment. "Last week of August, so we have about a month, but we would have to get you registered for classes if you want to go."

"I wouldn't even know what classes to take, or anybody there!"

Dawn waved her hand dismissively. "My best friend's little sister goes there, and should be a sophomore this next year, so she'll be in the same year as you. I'm sure she'll be glad to help you out. She's very… enthusiastic, you'll like her."

I thought about it for a moment before agreeing to meet her before the school year and to check out the place. "Now that that's out of the way," I started, catching both of theirs attention, "There are a few things I want to do this week, or next week."

"We should take you to see a doctor," Stella mumbled, looking at where my bandages were bulging out under the T-shirt.

"Yes, yes, I know that," I snapped, "but there is something I really need to do, for me."

"And that is?" Dawn asked.

"Cut my hair," I murmured. Seeing their confused expressions, I sighed and began to explain myself. "Mom would never let me cut my hair, ever, even when it started to get heavy and hurt my head. And a few years ago, it started to get lighter, almost silver in color; she made me start dying it so no one would know."

Stella looked surprised while Dawn looked thoughtful. She reached up and fingered a strand of my hair that had fallen out of the pony tail/bun that I had put it in. "I can see it a little bit, here and there. Looks like you haven't dyed it for a couple weeks." I hummed in agreement, before Dawn looked me in the eyes. "You really want to cut it?" She asked.

I nodded. "Do you know how annoying it is to have hair that trails behind you on the ground unless you pull it up somehow," I cried out, frustrated, "And the only way I could keep it up was to put it in these stupid little pigtails on my head. People referred to them as buns, or meatballs, and they were right! It was horrible!"

Stella cracked up at that. "Seriously," she gasped through her laughter, "That's how you wore your hair? Wow, it really does need to be cut. That is a fashion disaster waiting to happen. Good thing Dawn's bff is a hair stylist."

I looked to Dawn and she nodded. "Yup, went all through high school with her, and then she went to Beauty school. She's really good at what she does. I think I can arrange something, and you can meet her sister then as well."

"I would really appreciate it," I answered gratefully, poking the mass of hair on my head.

We continued eating and watching 'Whose Line is it Anyway?' I almost died laughing, it was so funny. Between the three of us, we finished off the pizzas. When I asked about the amount of food they ate, they told me that they had a high metabolism or something that caused them to eat a lot because they worked out a lot too.

"Alright," Dawn announced as she threw the garbage away, "It's getting late, and I still have some paintings to work on and lines to memorize." She then turned to me, "Why don't we finish that tour we started yesterday before getting you a proper bath."

I perked up at the mention of finally seeing Dawn's room, and finishing the bathing process. Dawn motioned her head down the right hallway. I stood up, wincing a little, and followed her down the hall. "Now, this door leads to the basement," Dawn said, motioning to a door on the right. "Nothing to spectacular, laundry, storage room and a small indoor gym." I nodded my head in understanding while Dawn opened the wooden door at the end of the hallway, just past the kitchen.

Walking into the door, I was astounded at what was in front of me. Rows upon rows of books littered the walls, while an antique style desk and plush looking chairs resided on the floor.

"A library?" I asked, looking around the room.

Dawn laughed, "Sorta, but there is also a section completely devoted to movies. Stella and I have collected quite a bit over the years."

"So what else is in here?" I asked looking around.

"Well," she started, looking sheepish, "You know how fond I am of clichés and stuff right?" I nodded. "Well, the staircase to my room is hidden in this room."

My mouth dropped open, "Really?"

She nodded, "Yep." She walked over to the inside wall, and pulled on one of the books. I heard a small click and a panel on the wall slide away to reveal another spiral staircase.

"No way!" I exclaimed, rushing over to inspect the opening. I glanced at the book briefly and noticed the title, 'Pride and Prejudice.' "Of course your favorite book would be the opening to your room," I muttered, shaking my head.

Dawn laughed and started to walk up the stair case. I followed her, determined to see my oldest sisters room. We came to an opening on the second floor. I stepped through and I gasped. Dawn's room was beautiful. One wall featured a pride of lions milling about, while the rest of the room was decked out in varying shades of cream, gold and silver. Her room was far larger than Stella's or mine and appeared to be what most people would call the 'master' suite. A large King sized bed sat against one wall, with a bedside table next to it. Against another wall sat a desk with papers strewn all over the top. More papers were on the floor, and next to the 6-string guitar sitting on the floor next to the desk. I picked up one of the papers and saw bits of crossed out musical scores.

"Music notes?" I asked, looking at Dawn.

She laughed, "Well Stella isn't the only one in this family musically inclined, but mine is more of a hobby when I need inspiration."

"Ever thought about going professional?"

Dawn paused for a moment before shaking her head. "No because then I would need to find a new hobby, and that is a task in itself."

"Would you play for me sometime?"

She laughed, "I'd be honored, but that can wait until you've been here awhile and feel better."

I nodded my head in agreement, before a thought crossed my mind. "Wait," I muttered, "If Sasha spends most of her time up here how does she get out to the rest of the house?"

Dawn looked confused for a moment before realization dawned in her eyes. "Oh," she said, "I thought you noticed yesterday." She pointed to a door on the other side of the room that had a tiny cat flap on the bottom. "That's on the other side of the hallway from your door. You must not have noticed last night."

I walked over to the door and opened it, and sure enough, I saw my bedroom door down the hallway, slightly ajar. "Well this is convenient," I murmured, "If ever I need to get you real fast, I can just run down the hall."

"Ugh, I'm going to have to get used to that," Dawn laughed, opening the door. "Come on, I'll show you the third floor tomorrow, let's get you a legit shower then back to bed."

Dawn helped me get a full shower, and rearranged the bandages around my ribs so that it would be more comfortable and provide more support. She must have slipped me some drugs in my drink or food because once she wrapped me back in my bed I was out like a light.

It was the beginning of the next week that I finally was able to use some of the contact information that Minako had given me. I pulled up my email account on my new laptop and shot off an email to my bubbly blonde friend.

_Hey Mina!_

_ I finally got the chance to contact you. I've gotten a new computer and email account so this should make things easier. I have to tell you everything that has happened to me since I left you in Japan. I'm not going to tell you where I am in case the unmentionables hack into your email and track me down, but that would be the only way. I've changed my name and appearance so they won't be able to find me no matter where they look._

_ Anyway, I did find my sisters again, and they are amazing! They're different from who they used to be, but I like them way more now, which is saying something because they were awesome before. Akari is still kind and loving, but extremely confident and a little sarcastic now, and Hikaru still has a temper but has mellowed out with age. I hope you get to meet them someday. They have taken good care of me since I found them, turns out they are rather well-off (that's all I'm going to say about that). They even bought me the laptop that I'm using! I am now the proud owner of a MacBook Pro, and I even got a brand new ipod and an idock. I've even gotten a whole new wardrobe and I'm finally allowed to wear what I want to, not what others make me wear._

_ And I've got to tell you this, I even made a new friend, possibly best friend (you're still my best friend, but I can have more than one), her name's Anna and she is totally awesome. Her older sister, is my oldest sister's best friend, so when we were introduced, we hit it off right away. It's almost like I have always known her. She is amazing; you'd like her. She can be bubbly, but she can also be tough. She doesn't let people walk all over her. And guess what? She's going to be in my year at the new school I'm going to start in the fall. I'm actually excited to go. It's a magnet school, but it focuses more on visual learning, and as you know, I suck at verbal learning, the way school is taught back in Japan._

_ It's great Mina, I haven't even been here for a week, but I already consider this place home. It really is like I have always been here. Anyway, I'll catch up with you later this week, Anna's going to introduce me to some of her friends tomorrow so I'll tell you all about it. How's it going with everything where you are? Drop me a line when you can!_

_Love,_

_Moon Bunny_

I finished the email and clicked the send button, watching it as it disappeared through cyberspace. I thought about everything that had happened this last week. The best part was when I met Anna.

_Flashback_

_ It was Saturday when Dawn's friend finally found enough room in her schedule to be able to snip my disgustingly long locks of hair. The salon she worked at was in downtown New York City, and was one of the most popular in the area. We walked into the salon and Dawn motioned me to follow her. I looked around at all of the stylists working, creating different hairstyles for all sorts of people. Dawn walked over to a woman who had shoulder length bluish black hair that was gelled and spiked in weird places. Sitting in the chair next to her was another girl with dark hair, but hers was in a low pony tale and went past her shoulder blades. My sister waved me over to them. The girl in the chair turned around, and bounced over to me, her burgundy eyes dancing with joy and a hint of mischief. _

_ "I'm Anastasia," she said, sticking out her hand, "Most everyone calls me Anna though unless they want to have their tonsils rearranged."_

_ I looked slightly startled at her straightforward nature, but accepted her hand nonetheless. "Serena," I replied, "It's a pleasure."_

_ I heard Dawn and her friend snickering. "Looks like you have been overwhelmed by Anna exuberance, I'm Christa by the way," the other woman said._

_ I smiled at them. "It's nice to meet you, both of you. I'm sorry I acted the way I did, I'm just not used to people telling it like it is."_

_ Anna merely rolled her eyes. "It's hard for me to not tell it like it is. I'd rather be truthful and deal with the aftermath, than work my way around a lie. I don't have a big enough attention span to keep up with liars."_

_ A giggle escaped my mouth before I could stop it. "I have a feeling we'll get along fine then," I said in explanation to my giggles._

_ "All right, enough with the pleasantries, you came here for a reason Serena, let's get to it," Christa said, motioning me to the chair._

_ I sat down and the three of them hovered around me like vultures. "So what are we doing today?" Christa asked, taking my hair down from the pony tail I forced on it. "Son of a mother," she murmured as my hair fell, pooling on the floor, "Are you shitting me? How does your head stay up girl? This has got to go."_

_ I let out a pained giggle, "That's what I was hoping for. Um, mid-back please, then a wash, and throw in a funky streak if you want."_

_ She laughed, "Oooh, I'll be playing with your hair."_

_ "Wait a minute," Dawn interrupted, "Tie her hair first. Serena, you may not want your hair, but some other little girl might. We can donate it to Locks-of-Love. I'm sure they'll love to have it."_

_ I grinned, "Sounds good to me, snip away, donate away, just get it off."_

_ Christa agreed, and started work on my hair. I felt a great sense of relief as I felt the tension leave my head as soon as the hair was removed. Anna kept me entertained while her sister worked her magic. I had discussed with Dawn how I wanted my hair to look earlier, so she kept her B.F. from having a field day with my hair. When she put me down to wash the hair, the remaining blonde hair coloring came out, leaving me with a flaxen hair color. It wasn't quite silver, but it was too light to be blonde. When the entire process was over, I was quite pleased with how it turned out. Golden pigtails gave way to loose flaxen hair with soft wispy layers. My bangs were brushed to the side with the rest of my hair, as I wanted to let them grow out a bit, and a thick streak of blue hair graced the right side of my face. I looked much older, but still maintained that cockiness that comes with the teenage years._

_ I smiled at my sister, her friend, and my new friend. "It's perfect."_

* * *

See you next chapter

^_^ Arty


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: ***pokes head from around corner... Throws Chapter down and runs away...*

* * *

**Chapter 5**

A few days later, I clicked open my email and noticed that I had gotten a reply from Minako.

_Heya Moon Bunny! Goddess of Love here._

_ I was so ecstatic to get your email. I was really worried about you. Artemis kept trying to calm my fears that you were dead in a ditch somewhere, but I just kept having horrible visions of you not finding your sisters and something awful happening to you. But you're in a safe place now, which is good. I'm so glad you found them, and they sound awesome. I can't wait to meet them at some point._

_You found a new best friend?! Gone for a little over a week and you've already moved on, geez, I feel hurt… Just kidding! That's great, I hope I get to meet her as well. Guess what?! I got into acting school! Isn't that great?! It's back home, in England, so, since you're no longer in Japan, I feel no need to stay here either. I'll be heading home probably by the end of the week. I'm really excited. It's supposed to be a great opportunity._

_ Anyhoo, I wanted to tell you what's going on with the unmentionables. They totally bought the bull-shit that your parents have been feeding people about you running away because you got kicked out of school, and everyone believes them! It's kind of amazing how stupid people can be sometimes. Oooh, and another thing. I talked to Michiru, she was sooo shocked at finding out what happened to you (I managed to get to her before anyone else. Score for the blonde goddess!) and was super mad at the unmentionables. I don't really know what went down between her and Haruka when she finally made it back to their apartment, but I do know that they broke up and Haruka was pissed. (Btw, Michiru is super scary when angry, DO NOT PISS HER OFF) Haruka did, she was sporting some serious injuries from what I heard. _

_ Anyway, Michiru is firmly in your camp, and is heading back to Europe with me. Apparently, she got a really good job in France and was only coming back to tell Haruka and pack her stuff… well, one out of two isn't bad. She's coming with me to London first before heading off to France. She's going to stay in touch with me, and I'll keep you updated on what she's doing. Of course I asked her if she wanted to contact you herself, but she said she didn't feel worthy to do so yet, for not being here for you when you needed her blah blah blah, outer senshi nonsense._

_Well, that's all I got for you right now. Next time I speak to you, I'll be safely back home in England._

_Tootles!_

_Love Goddess _

I couldn't help but giggle at my friend's antics. My heart skipped half a beat for a moment when I read that Michiru was on my side. I don't know why, but something about this seemed familiar. Something about our relationship seemed odd. I didn't give it any more thought before heading back downstairs for dinner. Stella was leaving the next day, so I wanted to spend some more time with her before she was gone for a while. Careful of my still recovering ribs, I raced downstairs to join my sisters in the kitchen. Dawn was teaching me a simpler way to cook than what my mother or Makoto did, so I was rather excited to be getting back to my lesson. Mainly because she was going back to work in a few weeks and wouldn't be around at dinner time to feed me, so it was purely for survival that I was learning. _Sniff, mhm, tacos…_

"Serena! Hurry up or your meat sauce is going to get burnt!"

"Ah! Coming!" I bounced my way out of my room and bolted down the spiraling staircase. Racing through the living room, I skidded to a halt in the kitchen.

"Check your meat," Dawn said as she continued to chop tomatoes, "If it's burnt, you'll have to start the process over again."

I looked down at the skillet on the stove and stirred the meat, sauce and seasoning concoction looking for burnt parts. "We're good," I called, still sifting through the meat. Lifting the wooden spoon in my hands to my lips, I sampled a little of the beef stuffing. "Mhmmm, yummy, I wonder why I can suddenly make this now…"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, before, in Japan, I had friends who would try to teach me to cook but it never worked out well. Everything I made, I either burnt, or mixed up the ingredients. How come I can at least cook without burning things or making them taste like pure salt now?"

I heard Dawn stop chopping and I turned around and saw her thinking. "Maybe," she said as she dumped the vegetables she was chopping into another skillet, "It was the atmosphere. You've told me a little about your friends and your home life with the parents and it didn't seem to me that they believed in you very much, like they were just waiting for you to fail."

"So you're saying they stopped me from succeeding?"

Dawn gave me a sad smile, "If you're told long enough that you're stupid and can't do something, eventually you start to believe it. I know both Stella and I came close to giving up a few times."

"Really?"

She nodded and we both continued to fix dinner, Dawn working the vegetables and I finished up the beef. I moaned at the taste of the tacos once we finished and combined all of the ingredients in a flour tortilla.

"I would call my first cooking lesson a success," I sighed happily, patting my tummy.

Dawn laughed, "Yes, pretty good, now, for your next lesson, show me how good you are at cleaning up from dinner."

"Awe, Dawn," I whined, whacking my head on the table.

"Stop whining, go clean, if you want to be able to stay in the house by yourself while I'm working and Stella's away, you're going to have to show me that you can be responsible and clean up after yourself."

"All right, all right," I sighed, getting up to clean the dishes.

"By the way," Dawn called, bringing her dishes to the sink to assist in the process, "Next week I've made arrangements to take you to the Mousai Magnet School of the arts to register if you're interested. If we get there and look around and you find you're not interested, well we'll find some place else, but I think you'll like it."

I nodded my head in agreement, "How will I get to school once the year starts?"

"You start Driver's Ed. tomorrow, you have a few weeks to get your driver's license before school starts. You'll just have to pass your driver's test along with the written test.

I squealed and hugged Dawn as hard as I could. "You're gonna let her start driving, oh boy, who's car is she going to use?" Stella asked, creeping up behind us to grab some of the remaining tacos. I jumped back startled, then turned to glare at her. She returned my glare as she munched down the taco, waiting for an answer.

"Yours of course, why get her a car when yours is going to be sitting in the garage collecting dust?" Dawn answered as she read the evening newspaper that was sitting on the counter top.

Stella gaped at Dawn for a minute before rounding on me. "IF there is even one scratch on my baby when I get back, it's taking your head, got it," Stella threatened, my death promised in her eyes if I hurt her car. I gulped, nodding quickly to avoid any more death glares.

Suddenly, a muffled version of "Domino" by Jessie J began playing, coming from the study across the entrance hall. "Ah," Dawn said, looking up when she heard the noise too, "That's Christa's ringtone, I'll see what she wants." I heard Dawn walk into the study and answer her cell-phone, before tuning out the conversation. Christa and Dawn talk quite often about the most random stuff, so conversations between them are rather difficult to follow.

Stella continued to munch on various leftover foods sitting in the fridge. She had claimed that since she was going to be on the road until she got to her apartment in Paris for the holiday season that she wanted to eat as much homemade food to make up for the time. I had gotten used to Stella's bizarre eating habits in the week that I had been around them, but it still amazed me at the amount of food she could consume.

I snapped out of my thoughts when Dawn walked back into the room. "Well, it looks like you won't have to stay here alone while Stella's gone and I'm working. That was Christa calling to see if Anna could stay here with you," Dawn said, looking at me as she spoke. I could feel my face break out into a grin as she kept speaking. "I told her it was up to you, but I would sure feel better if you were in the house with someone else other than Luna. I know she's rather intelligent, but you're going to need someone to talk to."

I giggled and winked at Luna who was eating her own specially made dinner in her cat dish on the floor. "Yeah, another person to talk to would be nice, when is she coming?"

"In a few days, Christa is going to drop her off since she's picking me up. I'm gonna stay with her the first week or so while we have the really late nights, and then after that I'm going to try and come home every night."

"Don't disrupt your routine on my account," I hastily said, trying to assuage her fears, "I'm 16, I'll be fine, and with going to be here as well, you have nothing to worry about."

Dawn looked doubtful for a moment before nodding, "We'll talk about it again when Anna's here. Now, I want to paint tomorrow, so why don't you and Stella do something fun?"

Finally finished stuffing her face, Stella looked up from the counter where she collapsed from her eating session and glanced over at me. "Sure, I can do that, an one last outing before I head out, what do ya say Serena?"

I smiled, "Sounds good to me."

* * *

"So where are we going?" I asked Stella as she drove through New York back roads.

"It's a surprise!" Stella sang as she grooved her way down the road.

I sighed again as she still refused to tell me where we were going. She woke me up rather early this morning and told me to dress in comfortable clothes. I grabbed a pair of athletic shorts and t-shirt out of my closet, and grumbled my way through breakfast.

"Stella!" I whined, pouting in my seat. I paused for a moment and look over at her, meeting Stella's eyes. We both burst out laughing, Stella struggling to keep her eyes on the road.

We continued to travel and I dozed off in the passenger's seat to pass the time. I felt myself being shaken awake, and I realized that the car had stopped.

"Wakey wakey," Stella cooed, "We're here."

"Hmm," I murmured, blinking my eyes open. I sat up and looked around, my jar dropping open at what I saw. "An amusement park?!"

"Yup," Stella replied, popping the 'p.' "We're on Coney Island, which is, of course, famous for the amusement park that always finds itself on the island. This particular one is called Luna Park, reopened in 2010. Dawn and I came for the opening and it was awesome, so I decided to bring you."

I was bouncing up and down by then. Grabbing Stella's hand, I dragged her towards the entrance of the park, "Well then, what are we waiting for?"

We played the whole day, dashing to and from rides, winning prizes at the games and eating all of the theme park food we could find. "Thanks a lot Stella," I said to her on the way back to the house, "I had an awesome time today."

Stella chuckled a little, "Me too Serena, I can't remember the last time I had that much fun in one day, or that much food, but I'm glad we were able to do something before I have to leave."

"Me too Stella, me too."

* * *

**A/N: **I'm sorry! I really am, but something more important came up this last year, like graduating from college. As I am now in between college and grad. school, I have decided to pick this story back up and continue it. I will finish it at some point, I promise. Now, this was just a filler chapter, things start happening in the next chapter. Part I of this story is almost finished actually, it has, at most, 10 chapters. Part II has been changed to Michiru's and Minako's POV so you'll find out what they were up to. Unfortunately, that means that you won't really know what's going on until Part III, when you get Dawn and Stella's story.

I do apologize for the short chapter, but it was a good place to end it, and seemed like a short and sweet chapter on sisterly type bonding or whatever. I hope I did okay cuz I a) don't have sisters, and b) don't bond... like ever. See you soon hopefully...

Artistia


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: **Holy Musical Batman, I am alive people, really I am. More reviews would be nice... Anyway, I have good news and bad news. Bad news: I lost my notes for this story. Good news: I found them. More Bad news: This story got a bit out of hand last chapter and most of this chapter, I had no idea what I was doing, just wingin' it. Good news: Got it back on the main track towards the end of the chapter. Some things have changed though, that I can't undo from the story or else the characters will get mad. Anyway, 3 more OC's in this chapter, I hope you're keeping track of them, big hint in this chapter as to who the OC's are. Along with the OC's are cameo appearances by some of my favorite characters from movies or tv shows, nothing from other anime or cartoons though, that would be a bit too much. These cameo's serve no purpose other than to save space and amuse me with some commentary I do on their characters. And the cameos are:

Belle- Once Upon a Time

Neil Caffrey- White Collar

Oliver Wood- Harry Potter

Mary Margaret Blanchard- Once Upon a Time

Sophie Devereaux- Leverage

Maura Isles (mentioned)- Rizzoli & Isles

Jane Rizzoli (hinted at)- Rizzoli & Isles

There will be others when it suits me, I just didn't want to come up with characters for everyone, too many OC's is confusing and as they didn't really do much, I decided to use characters already made, so just ignore them. If I get bored, I'll included little moments and gossip that Serena will see or hear with some characters. Tehehe, anyway...

* * *

**Chapter 6**

"So what do you want to do tonight, this our last night of freedom?" Anna asked me, plopping down next to me on the couch with a bowl of popcorn. It had been about a week since Anna had come to stay with me and Dawn had gone back to work. Stella had left a few days prior to that, so the only one's left in the house were Anna, Luna and I. Sonya stayed with Dawn in the city apparently so that she doesn't cause too much trouble, and Essie travels with Stella.

"I have no idea," I groaned, propping my arm up on the armrest, "I never thought I would be so excited for school to start if it would only give me something to do during the day."

"Agreed," Anna nodded, "I had been working, but since school was starting back, the owner let me go until I could get back into the swing of things."

"Where were you working?"

"A small local theater, nothing major, cleaning, prop storage, taking care of the day by day, and collecting tickets on show night. It wasn't much, but it was something."

"Truth, something to do is better than nothing."

Anna gave a non-committal sigh before bouncing back into action. "So you never did tell me what you thought of the school," she said, looking at me with, what I can assume was an expectant look in her eyes, "I know you went with Dawn a couple days ago to get your schedule sorted, so tell me, what did you think, what classes are you taking, who's your homeroom teacher?"

I waited for a moment after her last breath. "Are you done?" I asked, hoping no more questions would come my way.

"Yeah, I think so, now spill."

"Well…"

_Flashback_

"_Woah… This is where you went to school?" I gasped, gazing at the magnificent building before me. The building was constructed out of tan brick, and the façade looked like an old Greek temple. Mousai Magnet of the Arts was carved in cursive lettering in the frieze just bellow the pediment on the façade._

_I heard Dawn chuckle from beside me, "Yes, this is the ol' stomping ground, now come on, we're meeting the headmistress to work out your schedule."_

_She started inside, and I trailed in after her, still taking in the unbelievable sights in front of me. The exterior of the building did nothing to hint at what was inside. One wall was covered in graffiti style murals depicting the various arts and the muses, while the other wall held lockers. "Geez," I said, glancing around as we kept walking down the hallway, "this school sure is a lot bigger than it looks on the outside."_

_Dawn looked back at me and smiled, "You mean the façade? Yeah, it just covers the main building, but the surrounding buildings are also part of the school. Theater, gym, etc, etc, the main building is set up as a square, with an open courtyard in the middle. Most of the classrooms face the courtyard."_

"_Wow," I murmured, still entranced by the atmosphere, "I'm really excited."_

"_And you should be," a voice said from behind us. I turned around and saw what can only be described as an extremely eccentric personality. The woman was older; probably in her 60's, with spiky green hair and swirling clothes that seemed to flow around her. She spoke with a French accent that gave her a unique artistic and eccentric persona. "Bonjour Dawn, you haven't come to see me recently," she said, turning to my sister._

_Dawn grimaced and looked down sheepishly, "Sorry, I've been a bit scattered recently. Anyway, Fiona, this my youngest sister Serena, Serena this is the Headmistress, Fiona Alcott."_

_She reached out and kissed me on both cheeks, "Bonjour Serena, please call me Fiona, everyone here does."_

"_Hi," I replied, not sure what else to say._

_Fiona nodded understandingly, and wrapped her arm around my shoulders, "Why don't we go get your schedule sorted out, Dawn you coming?"_

"_Na, I think I'm gonna go spend sometime in the courtyard basking in the sun, I don't get enough of it on stage all day rehearsing," Dawn answered as she walked back down the hallway._

"_Bon, come along Serena," Fiona sang as she pulled me inside her office. "Now," she said as she sat me down in a plump recliner, "You'll be going into the 10__th__ grade, you'll need the basic core classes of math, science, English, history, a foreign language, gym, and extra electives. Do you have any ideas as to what you would like to take?"_

_I gaped at her, "I get to choose?"_

_Fiona laughed at my expression, "Why of course dear, I mean, some things you don't, but the majority of your classes you do."_

"_What do you mean?"_

"_Well, you'll take the standard sophomore for some of the main classes, such as English II, U.S. History and normally it would be Biology for science and Geometry for math, but I would suggest Earth Science and Algebra instead, get you familiar with things."_

_I nodded, "That sounds reasonable, now what else?"_

"_Foreign language, do you want French, Spanish, Italian or Latin?"_

"_Um, I know next to nothing about dead languages, so I'll go with French, Dawn and Stella could probably help me with it."_

_Fiona nodded, and made the appropriate notations, "You'll also need a physical education class of some type, we have advanced classes for later, but right now, I recommend you take the basic P.E. and Health class."_

"_Okay…" my head felt like it was going to implode, "Advanced classes?"_

_She smirked at me, "Like yoga, weightlifting, swimming, archery, fencing, etc. There are clubs afterschool for each if you would like to get started on one early, and there are free yoga classes before school on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays."_

"_Ugh…" My head began to feel like it was imploding, "I'm not very good at sports…"_

_Fiona looked slightly confused, "What does that have to do with anything? Most of the people in these clubs and classes just want to learn something new. Only the seniors who have been doing it for a while are probably more skilled, but that can only help you. Now, for your final elective, any one of the artistic disciplines will suffice, so pick from this list."_

_I glanced down at the list she handed me, and my eyes nearly bugged out, "How do you have so many choices?" _

"_Magnet school for the arts remember, and at least half of the students don't have to take a foreign language, they place out of them by taking a placement test for one of the languages we offer. And, although you speak Japanese, that isn't a language we offer, so you have to take another."_

_I nodded understandingly, "It's okay, I much rather take French, um, how about Theater or Dance?"_

"_Bon," Fiona said, writing down my choices. She typed them into the computer. "I'll email your schedule to you sister later, ma petite lapin, the computer has to think about it awhile."_

"_All right, well, I guess I'll see you around then?" I replied awkwardly as I inched towards the door. _

_Fiona grabbed me and kissed me on both cheeks, "Au revoir dear."_

_I exited the room and went to find Dawn, lying down in the courtyard. "Hey," she said as I reached her, "How did it go?"_

"_She's weird…"_

_End Flashback_

"Oh boy, someone really needs to speak to Fiona about scaring the newbies," Anna muttered, smacking her hand to her forehead.

"She's like that all the time then?" I asked her, surprised.

Anna nodded her head, "She likes to pretend she's French, but she gets carried away, of course it just continues to add to her eccentric persona. Now, enough about that, tell me about your schedule!"

"Um, I have French I for 1st period, English II in 2nd period, Theater I 3rd period, Earth Science 4th period, and finally gym for 5th period."

"Woo hoo!" Anna yelled, punching her fists in the air, "Wait, who's your homeroom teacher?"

"Um, a Mr. Caffrey?"

"Yes, yes, yes, I was worried that we would be split up, but looks like we lucked out. We have the same homeroom, and we have 3rd and 4th period together."

"How did we get the same homeroom?"

"They're divided alphabetically, my last name is Rayanth, so we barely made it into the same one."

I hummed not really interested, then something the headmistress said filtered into my head. "Wait, how do we have the same Science class? Fiona said only freshman take that class."

My eyes narrowed when I saw Anna flinch and I stared at her until she provided an answer. "I may or may not have failed the class last year when I took it," she murmured looking down. I prodded her to continue with her explanation. "I was sick a lot and so I couldn't keep up, I barely passed my other classes. Science was the only one I had a problem with."

I nudged her with my elbow, "We'll get through it together, even if it kills us."

"It just might," Anna wailed, pathetically.

I laughed at her, "C'mon, Disney movie marathon, on this, our last night. We can order some Thai food from that place we found."

Anna perked up immediately. "I'll call it in!" she yelled, dashing towards the kitchen.

"Can you get the movies too? I have to go get something upstairs," I asked her, making my way up the spiral stairs.

"As long as you don't complain about my choices!"

I raced up the stairs towards my room, mindful of the last time she chose the movies unsupervised, I had to watch some cheesy B-rated horror movies. She's limited to Disney this time, but I still don't trust her. "Luna!" I yelled, reaching my room, "We're ordering Thai food and watching Disney movies, do you want to come down?"

"Will you give me some of your food if I do?" Luna asked from her perch on the window seat.

"Of course, and I'll even make that special treat Dawn showed me how to make if you stay through all the movies."

"Well, if you put it that way, I guess I must," Luna conceded. I chuckled, and grabbed my laptop off my desk. Luna and I headed back down the stairs and plopped on the couch.

"So what movies did you pick?" I yelled as I opened my laptop.

"Tehehe, we're going for Disney classics tonight, The Aristocats, Robin Hood, The Fox and the Hound and One Hundred and One Dalmatians, all animal tales of course, as it should be," Anna replied, walking into the room with a stack on movies. "Food should be here in like 30 minutes, I used the pre-paid credit card Dawn left you to pay for it."

I hummed and clicked on my email, noticing another message from Mina. We had communicated off and on for the past few weeks; we were going to try and instant message later on when our schedules settled down after school started, but until then, email was our only form of communication.

_Heya Moon Bunny! _

_Goddess of Love here, settled in and ready for school. I know, that sounds weird, coming from me, but this is acting school we're talking about. There are the basic subjects of course, but mostly acting. This is my chance to make it big!_

_Anyway, enough about me, how are you doing? You're about to start school right, that's got to be exciting. Are you and Anna in any of the same classes? By the way, I'm super excited about meeting her, I am meeting her and some point right? I MUST MEET HER!_

_Moving on, did you know Michiru's family is actually from England? I didn't get to meet them, but they're on the upper class side if you know what I mean. She left for France last week, but promised she'd stay in touch. I might go visit her over Christmas break. Anyhoo, til next time._

_Toddle loo_

"Is that an email from your friend? Mina something?" Anna asked, leaning over to read the email, "Does she make it a habit to smoke crack?"

I burst out laughing, and I noticed Luna had difficulty hiding her snickers, "No, she's just… really bubbly."

"Fair enough, are you going to email her back?"

"I guess, do you wanna do it?"

Anna grinned, "I thought you'd never ask."

_Dear Goddess of Love,_

_Moon Bunny here, but she's not the one typing. I think you know who I am, muwahahah, you did want to meet me after all. We're doing fine here, school starts tomorrow, and of course we have classes together, I wouldn't stand for anything else._

_Who is Michiru hmm, someone important, I would like all the dirt on my new friend here. ("_Stop grabbing at the computer while I'm typing!" "Anna! Don't type that!" "Quiet!") _We'll have to exchange emails and chat later, away from certain people…_

_Keep me updated on the attractive persons of England, oooh, and maybe we can meet over Christmas break, a little journey to France to visit this Michiru. _("Anna!" "All right, geez, almost done.") _Anyway, Moon Bunny will talk to you later of course, as will I, and as for me, you may call me Dark Captain ;)_

_Peace_

"Dark Captain?" I asked Anna, glancing over at her.

"Well, I have dark hair," she replied, flipping her long raven colored hair, "And my iphone calls me Captain."

I looked at her incredulously and started giggling. Anna glared at me for a moment before she too succumbed to laughter. Soon enough the food arrived, and we dug into our meals as we started our first movie, the Aristocats. Halfway through the movie and the food, Anna turned and looked at me. "You know, if you do like this Michiru person, whoever she is, that's fine with me," she said seriously.

I shook my head, "She's just my friend; she always thought I was such a child, so trust me, nothing is going on. Mina is just informing me about a mutual friend is all."

"Well, just so you know, it doesn't bother me, either way about, you know. I've thought about it before, I don't know if I, well, let's just say I haven't put all that much into it, but it doesn't bother me, your still my friend, no matter what."

I stared for at her for a few minutes, before I leaned over and hugged her. "Thanks, that means a lot to me, and just so you know. I've thought about it too, not that much, but it doesn't bother me either."

"I don't think I can do this," I murmured, staring at the structure in front of me, and the people streaming into it with fear and trepidation.

"Yes you can," Dawn replied, her arm around my shoulders in a comforting gesture. "Anna will be there with you, and I'm sure you'll make new friends."

"Yeah this school is not that bad, and it's not all that big, only about 1000 or so students," Christa commented from her place next to Anna. Both her and Dawn had come to meet us here before school started to wish us luck and make sure we had everything. According to Dawn, Christa also liked to make sure that Anna was dressed appropriately for school. Different from her normal clothing style, Anna liked to exude a punk-goth style at school and so dressed accordingly. Black and purple were her favorite colors, so it worked with her.

"Maybe I should just take online classes or something, get my GED," I muttered, still too petrified to move.

"Not an option," Dawn stated, "Now get going, have a good day, I'll be picking you up and taking you home since Anna's gonna stay at home this first week. I don't have to be back for rehearsals until the weekend anyway."

I nodded my head. I still wasn't comfortable driving, so Anna has been driving us around when we needed to go somewhere. I hugged Dawn goodbye as Anna grabbed me and dragged me into the building.

"Come on," she said, "Your locker is near mine so we'll dump off the books for afternoon classes. You can come get them during your lunch period. Since it's the first day, we won't really be doing much but filling out forms and stuff, but it's nice to look like you're prepared for the first day."

Still reeling from all the people around me in various colors and clothing, completely different than what I was used to in Japan, I could only nod my head. Anna stared at me for a moment, I'm assuming trying to figure out if I was on the same page as her. I wasn't but she didn't need to know that. "Alrighty, we have to go to homeroom first. It's real convenient for you because it's in the Language Arts department, French and English will both be there so you don't have to leave until your 3rd period class."

"I think Mr. Caffrey is also my English teacher," I replied, looking down at my schedule.

Anna whistled, "Damn you're lucky, he's hot, what I wouldn't give to listen to him read me Shakespeare for an entire class, I guess I'll have to make do with staring at him during homeroom."

I stared at her incredulously, "Your horrible."

"Just wait, and you'll see."

We continued down the hallway, dodging people rushing to class or lockers, or just carrying large equipment, either instruments or canvases, dropping them off for later classes. I was amazed at what I saw everywhere I turned. While the school itself was decorated beautifully, the other students were what amazed me the most. They were all different, even the people that dressed similarly managed to look completely unique with how they styled their hair, or how they presented themselves.

"The dress code is pretty loose here," Anna explained as she saw me looking around, "I mean, there are still rules, like nothing cut too low, exposing midriff or too short for the girls, and the guys have to keep their pants pulled up and can only wear the ripped armpit t-shirts during gym. The consequences for breaking the dressed code are pretty harsh, so, for the most part, it's followed."

"What happens?"

"First offense? You have to wear this hideous neon t-shirt and pant set they keep in stock in the office if your clothes are too revealing. If guys can't keep their pants up, they have to wear hideous suspenders that pull their pants halfway up their chest. Not many ever get past the first offense, it's too embarrassing, but they have creative punishments for repeat offenders."

"Do I want to know?"

"Just don't break the dress code. Also, nothing that promotes things that we're too young for, like alcohol, or stuff that is extremely offensive, like promoting prejudicial hatred. No visible tattoos, and piercings have to be removed before school unless they're like pierced ears, no spacers. And as for our hair, we're pretty much allowed to do what we want, ridiculous styles and colors, accessories, just can't wear hats in class."

"What's with the piercings rule?" I asked, dodging a girl running by with a flailing flute case.

Anna shrugged, "I don't know, it's kinda a new rule. Only put in place a few years ago from what I understand. We'll get the updated student handbook during homeroom, complete with student planner btw, maybe it's in there."

We turned a corner and entered a different wing of the school, and entered the language arts section of the school. The walls were covered in different quotes in multiple languages from, I can only assume, famous authors. "Wow," I murmured, looking around, trying to take it all in.

"Yeah yeah, come on," Anna sighed, pushing me towards one of the doors. "Since Caffrey is your English teacher as well, this is going to be your 2nd period room too."

We claimed desks towards the back. I would probably move closer to the front during class, but homeroom isn't really a class. A few minutes later, the bell rang, and the rest of the class trickled in slowly and picked seats, sitting next to friends, or just finding a place to sit.

Soon after everyone had trickled in, the teacher walked in with a leather briefcase. My eyes bugged out and I had to fight to keep my mouth from falling open. Anna was right; Mr. Caffrey was hot. He looked like a model with his strong angular features, brushed back brown hair, and piercing blue eyes.

"Damn," I heard Anna murmur, "He sure can rock the sweater vest better than anyone else." I nodded my head absentmindedly, taking in the vest and dress shirt combo.

He placed his briefcase down and sat on top of his desk, grabbing a few pieces of stacked up papers from the top of his desk and looked out at us. "This is homeroom. I am Mr. Caffrey, if you aren't in the right places, speak now and we can sort out where you need to be." When nobody raised their hands, he continued on, "Alright very good. I'm going to take roll, and as I call your names, will you come up and get your student handbook from the box right there," motioning towards the box on the floor in the front of the room, "and return to your seats so we can go over basic rules and make sure everyone knows where their classes are located."

Mr. Caffrey looked down at the list in his hand and called out, "Serena Parker."

"Geez, I'm first yay!" I muttered, making my way to the front, grabbing a handbook out of the box.

"Are you by chance related to Stella Parker?" Caffrey asked as I made my way back towards my seat.

"Yeah," I said, turning back to face him, "She's my sister, how do you know her?"

"She was in my first class here, and you look a lot like her. I wish I had the opportunity to teach your oldest sister as well, I heard she was a lot of fun in class," he explained before moving on to the next name on the list.

I sat back down and looked over at Anna, "This is going to be weird isn't it, going to the same school that my sisters went to, I never had to deal with this before."

"Welcome to the club, I've always had to deal with this. Following my sister isn't easy, I can't imagine what you'll have to go through," Anna whispered back, waiting for her name to be called.

As homeroom continued, I thought about both of my sisters: Dawn, the Broadway star and budding artist, and Stella, the music prodigy, performing all over the country and in Europe. They were tough acts to follow, and more than a few of the teachers here would probably expect me to be like them. I started to panic internally, and took a few deep breaths to calm down. I didn't know what was going to happen with the rest of my teachers, but I would face them and prove I was different from my sisters if I had to.

The bell rang a few minutes after Mr. Caffrey finished briefing all of us on new school rules and the schedule for the day, dismissing us to first period.

"Your French class is just down the hall," Anna said, pointing to the right. "I'm going upstairs for math, I'll be back down for Latin later and will grab you and we'll head to science together."

I nodded, and walked down the hall until I got to the correct door. Entering the room, I noticed the assigned seats and found my name, pushing my backpack under the desk until I needed it. Looking around, I located the teacher, a young, slender brunette woman, sitting at her desk, ruffling papers. The rest of the class, about 15 more people, trickled in and took their seats. I began making small talk with the people sitting around me, learning that the class was full of a variety of people in different grades. The talking quieted out when the bell rang and the teacher walked to the front of the classroom.

"Bonjour class," she greeted, smiling, "My name is Isabelle Gold, and I'm your French I teacher, feel free to call me Madame Belle. This is my first year teaching here, so please be kind to me. Now, I'll take roll, pass out the syllabus, then we can all get to know each other a little bit." She took roll, calling out various names, and I took note of the ones sitting near me so that I would remember their names in the future. "Alright, now I'll tell you a little about myself, and then you can tell me a bit about yourselves. That should be enough for today I think. Now, my name is Isabelle Gold, as I told you, I usually go by Belle though. I'm almost 25 years old; I grew up in France, but moved to the States during my junior year of high school and was enrolled here. I loved it, obviously, or I wouldn't be here filling in for a while since the old French teacher had a baby and decided to be a stay at home mom. I went to NYU, and moved back to France for a year to teach English. I met my husband there. Ironically, he was from New York as well and was in France on vacation with his son. I moved back here to be with them and we got married a few months ago." She said, flashing her wedding ring on her finger. All of the girls in class, myself included, 'awed' when she showed us the ring. "Now I'm teaching and working on a Master's in Library Science degree, any questions?"

"What does your husband do?" A girl on the side of the room closest to the door asked.

"He's an attorney," Madame Belle answered, glancing over towards the girl who asked the question. "Now, let's get on to you guys, tell me a little about yourselves."

The introductions started alphabetically. As I sat and listened, I realized most of my classmates were people belonging to wealthier families, although a few of them were on scholarship because they were particularly talented in a particular area or sport. When my turn came, I decided to edit the truth a little.

"My name is Serena Parker, I was born in California, but I grew up in Japan. I wasn't doing very well in school there, so I decided to move New York and live with my older sisters, and was enrolled here."

"Parker, Parker…" Madame Belle murmured a few times, "Ah, your Dawn Parker's youngest sister, I knew her in school, nice girl. I liked her; she was really funny, I'll have to call her and catch up." Much to my relief, she moved on to the next victim and I let out a sigh of relief.

"Most of us get it," I heard a whisper to my left. I turned my head to the girl sitting next to me. She was a junior from what I remembered, but I couldn't recall her name. I could tell she was tall just by looking at her. Her shoulder length brown hair had thick blonde highlights running through it. Her hazel eyes never waivered from my own, and held a soft look of understanding. "It's hard being compared with family members, most of the people in this school get it. You'll have it particularly difficult since your sisters went here and are some of the more famous alumni, but, just so ya know, you're not alone."

"Thanks…" I paused, searching for her name in my mind.

"Brigitte, Brigitte Neil," she answered my unasked question, before turning back to face the front. Class ended shortly after everyone finished introducing themselves, and I went back to Mr. Caffrey's class. The class was similar to my first one, except it was only other sophomores in the class.

Anna was waiting outside the door for me when I walked out of class. "Time for theater, we have to hurry, we need to go to a completely different building," Anna said, pulling me down the hall through the language department. "The building behind the school, connected by glass walkways, faces the road that it fronts on, so technically, we're going in the back, but it works like that because it's the theater building, which also has the auditorium used for graduation, as well as the music and art classes." Exiting the building, we entered one of the hallways; some students were rushing to and from class, others were trudging hesitantly, like they were unsure of where they were going. "Freshmen tend to get lost here for the first few days."

Entering into the new, building, I glanced around in amazement similar to when I first saw the inside of the main building, but I didn't have time to gawk as Anna was pulling me towards class. We walked in the side door of the theater and moved towards where the rest of the class was gathered.

"Hey Brigitte," Anna called out, and I recognized the girl that I spoke to today in French class.

She turned at the sound of her name and smiled in our direction. "Anna, hey, how was you summer?" Brigitte asked, giving the significantly shorter girl a one-armed hug. It was almost comical. Anna barely came to the older girl's shoulder.

"Eh, so-so, anyway, this is my new friend Serena," Anna said, motioning to me.

"We kinda met earlier, in French class," Brigitte answered, smiling at me, sticking out her hand, "But it's nice to meet officially out of a class."

"Nice to meet you too," I replied, shaking her hand, "I hope we can become good friends."

"Me too," Brigitte agreed before turning back to Anna, "What other classes do you have today?"

"I have to retake Earth Science, which is next, then after I have a yoga class, what about you?"

"Chemistry then English III, who do you have for science?"

"We," Anna started, motioning towards me, "have Ms. Blanchard for Earth Science, so hopefully we'll make the grade and she'll give us a good enough recommendation to get into Dr. Isles AP Biology class next semester."

Brigitte had a wistful look on her face, "I wish I had made a good enough grade to take her class, you basically get an automatic entry into her human anatomy class. I'd much rather be taking that instead of Chemistry."

"Who's Dr. Isles?" I asked, trying to include myself into the conversation, "And why do we want to take her AP Biology class next semester?"

Anna turned toward me, "Dr. Isles is one of the best teachers at this school. She used to be a Medical Examiner, but took some leave so that she could raise her kids on a more set schedule through their formative years. Her wife is a homicide detective from what I hear."

I blinked at the word 'wife' but chose to ignore it to focus on the information I really wanted to get to, but I filed it away for further discussion when Anna and I were alone. "So why are we trying to get in her class?" I asked in further clarification of what I really wanted to know.

"Almost everyone who's taken her AP Biology and Human Anatomy classes has passed the AP test and tested out of college science. I don't know about you, but if and when I decide to go to college, I don't want to be taking many general education classes, and how to get out of that is to take AP classes now, in school."

I nodded my head at her logic. "But next semester?" I whined, not really wanting to take another science class that year. Science was not my strong suit.

"We have to double up or we'll be behind, I mean, you're gonna have to double up on math next year. Just be grateful Fiona's not making you double up on English."

The conversation ended when the bell rang and the teacher walked into the room. She also had sharp features and dark brown hair, but had a more olive skin tone. "Hello class," she called out to the group as she sat down in front of us on the edge of the stage, "I am Sophie Devereaux, your new Theater teacher; we'll do introductions around, and cover some of the basics today before I dismiss you to your next class. Shall we get started." Class continued, and as soon as it was over, Anna was pulling me back towards the main building.

"Science class… Yay!" I heard Anna muttering to herself. Going up to the third floor of the school, we entered the part of school dedicated to the sciences. Anna continued to drag me towards our classroom, which, based on her directional focus, was at the end of the hall closer to the other door leading to the rest of the second floor. Entering the room, I noticed a small petite woman, with pale skin and pixie-cut brunette hair. She seemed to have a soft look about her, so I had hope that I would pass this semester under her instruction.

Ms. Blanchard started the class like every other teacher that day had done, but after 30 minutes we were dismissed to go to lunch when the bell rang signaling the start of the 2nd lunch period.

The cafeteria was on the 1st floor, but on the other side of the building from where I was that morning. "There's a card scanner by the doors to the cafeteria," Anna told me as we headed towards the lunchroom, "If you have a prepaid plan, just scan your student ID. Not everyone does this, some people prefer to bring their lunches or pay on a day by day basis." We both swiped our ID cards as we entered the room. I saw a lady at the front desk taking lunch money, and other students already sitting at some of the numerous round or square tables, unpacking the lunches they brought from home.

"Come on, follow me," Anna said, pushing me towards the food bar area, "We three choices, a salad bar, the entrée bar, or the speedy bar."

"What's the speedy bar?" I asked, looking towards where she pointed.

"Pizza and cookies. The pizza is delicious but it gets kinda gross if you eat it every day. I'm gonna hit up the salad bar, make a salad and maybe a sandwich, what about you?"

The large appetite that seemed to run in my family was kicking in and I knew that neither a salad nor sandwich would touch the hunger. "I'm gonna go through the entrée line, load up on stuff there."

Anna sighed, "Oh that's right, you're a bottomless pit, anyway, just find me when you get done. I usually sit in the back corner closest to the door."

I nodded and headed off towards the line. When I got to the front, close enough to grab a plate, I piled it high with the food choice of the day, spaghetti, a few bread sticks, and some of the vegetables to make myself feel better about the amount of carbs I was about to consume. As an after thought, I grab an apple on my way towards where Anna said she would be sitting.

Heading towards where she told me she would be, I saw someone else sitting at the table with her, unpacking a lunch box. This person, a girl I assumed, had long dark bluish hair that reminded me almost of Ami's hair color. Approaching the table, Anna waved me over and the other girl glanced over at me and I almost dropped my food, she _looked_ like Ami, not exactly but I could see a resemblance. I flinched a little at the thought then instantly felt guilty when I saw hurt creep it's way on her face before she turned away from me.

As I sat down, Anna motioned towards the girl across from her, "Serena this is Sofya, Sofya, Serena." With introduction done, Anna returned to her salad, which seemed more like a bowl of ranch dressing than a bowl of vegetables.

Turning towards Sofya, I nodded my head in greeting and smiled at her. "I'm sorry for flinching when you turned towards me, you just look like someone back in Japan."

Sofya gave me an understanding smile, "It's okay, I'm guessing from the way you reacted that you didn't like this person?"

"Understatement of the year, I thought she was my friend, but she turned out to be nothing but cold hearted bitch."

She looked thoughtful for a moment before replying, "Her name wouldn't have been Ami would it?"

A shocked look crossed my face and I stuttered, "How-How did you know?"

"Ami's my younger twin sister. When our parent split up, I went with Dad, and Ami stayed with our mom. She was always a bit of a bitch when we were younger, always thinking she knew everything because she was book smart," Sofya replied, silently seething. "Mother encouraged her to act that way unfortunately, but thankfully I no longer have to see either of those twits."

I blinked, "Wow, small world." Sofya smiled at me indulgently. "So since I had the misfortune of meeting your sister first," _understatement of the year_, "can you tell me about what you like to do so I can get her out of my head?"

She giggled, a light sweet sound that mad me smile in response. "Unlike my dear _mother_ who's a doctor and very boring, my dad is an artist. He encouraged my creativity that led me to a bunch of different hobbies, but what I really love to do is make music."

"So I'm guessing you play an instrument? What kind?"

At this I saw her smiling face grimace a little, "Well, I'm really good at playing the piano, it's nice and all, but I wanted to branch out a little, so this year I'm gonna start learning to play the cello."

"The cello? Really?" Anna interjected, looking up from her half eaten bowl of ranch dressing and vegetables, "Why couldn't you pick like a normal instrument? Like the violin? Or the trumpet?"

"I don't like brass instruments Anna, and I wanted to learn the drums but Dad said I gave him too many headaches over the summer," Sofya retorted, sticking out her tongue.

"So you picked the cello?"

Sofya shrugged, "I wanted to be different."

I started giggling as Anna glared at Sofya from across the table while Sofya simply smiled back at her in a spacey manner. Pretty soon the other two started laughing as well and we finished up our lunch right before the bell rang, signaling it was time to return to class. The rest of science was kind of boring. Ms. Blanchard went over the syllabus and told us what we would be starting the next day in case we wanted to look it over in our textbooks.

After class was over, Anna pulled me towards the gym, stating that her yoga class was in one of the dance studios in that building. It was across the road that ran next to the school, and I found out that in order to help students make it to class on time without having to cross traffic, the school made glass walkways from the third floor of the school over to the gym building. I glanced down at the cars zooming back and forth on the road beneath me and felt very glad they did.

"Alrighty, well, my yoga class is up here, if you go down those stairs over there," Anna said, gesturing to the top of a flight of stairs to the left, "You can get down to the gym entrance level where your class is meeting." She glanced down at my schedule, "Damn, your teacher is Mr. Wood? How do you get so lucky to get all the hot teachers? He's the basketball coach; wow, hot, erm, anyway, just sit on the bleachers with the other students, the teachers will divide you according to your class. Bye Serena, have fun!"

I trudged down the stairs and towards the gym. Glancing over towards the bleachers, I noticed a large group of students congregating so I joined them to wait for class to start. Soon, three teachers came up to us, and called our names, dividing us into classes of about 15 students each.

"Good day class," Mr. Wood said, greeting us all with a slight English accent, "I am Oliver Wood, the basketball coach here and I'll be your Physical education teacher for this semester. Here are your syllabuses, and I expect you all to bring clothes with you tomorrow to work out. I'll be conducting a physical test tomorrow in class to evaluate where each of you stand physically. Now, if you follow me, I'll show all of you to the locker rooms where you'll store your stuff and get dressed for class." We followed him over to the side of the gym where he pointed out the men and women's locker rooms, complete with bathroom and showers if we needed it. As I studied Mr. Wood, I found that he was attractive in a rugged kind of way, but not near as hot as Mr. Caffrey was this morning.

Pretty soon the bell rang, signaling the end of school. I bolted upstairs to find Anna, because I had no idea how to get back to the front of the school to meet Dawn. Anna was waiting for me though and shuffled me back through the walkway and down out through the main building.

"This is where I bid you adieu for the day, I'm catching a bus back to the apartment, but I'll see you tomorrow," a quick hug and she was gone, running off down the road towards the bus stop.

"Serena!" I heard Dawn's voice calling me and I turned and spotted her just down the steps from where I was. I bolted towards her and gave her a big hug when I got to her. "Well thank you," she laughed, hugging me back, "How was your day?"

"It was pretty good. The school is awesome, and all of my teachers seem really nice, though it got kind of annoying being compared to you two for most of the day," I added, grudgingly.

I saw her flinch slightly. "Sorry about that," she murmured, "They should lighten up a little after the first few weeks."

"Oh and one of my teachers was a friend of yours, Isabelle Gold?"

"Isabelle Gold… Oh Belle! I didn't realize she was back in the country, I know she had gotten married. We weren't close friends exactly, but good enough. I'll have to give a call at some point."

We headed down the road to the parking garage where I had left the car this morning. Anna forced me to drive to school so that I would know how to do it when I was by myself. However, I made Dawn drive on the way home and I told her everything that had happened that day, who I had met and made friends with. Pretty soon we were pulling into the driveway, and I noticed another car sitting in front of the house.

"Who's that?" I asked as Dawn pulled in behind the other car.

"I'm not sure," Dawn replied with a puzzled tone.

Exiting the car, I spotted someone sitting on the front steps of the house. When that person stood up, I felt my blood run cold. _Beryl…_

* * *

_A/N: _How am I doing on character development? Sometimes the characters all sound the same to me, but on the other hand I don't really do this for a living. Much better at pictures than I am with words, trust me. Anyway, what do you think Beryl is doing at her house? Brownie points to anyone who can guess what happens next, who the OC's are, or what I'm gonna do to mess with people next.

**Review! **And I might update faster, they keep me inspired and interested, if I'm not interested in something, I don't go near it for months.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: **Happy 2013! I forgot to tell you but the last chapter was posted in honor of Dawn's birthday, which is Dec 21 (the winter solstice). She was very upset with me when I forgot to tell you all when her birthday was and to make sure you wished her a happy birthday. The problem with OC's is that they develop their own personality and hers is cray cray when she's not participating in this lovely story. Of course, I tried explaining to her that we haven't technically reached her birthday in the story line, we haven't even gotten to Stella's (Sept. 22nd). Dawn proceeded to inform me that that was all technicalities... I got a sever talking to... Anyway, just to clarify to ease my own confusion when I was trying to count this out, at the current place in the story, Serena turned 16 June 21st (I changed her birthday I think), she left home in July... maybe early August, something like that, Stella is 22, and will turn 23 on her birthday, Dawn is 24 and turns 25 when the story finally gets there at the end of Part I (Me: Are you happy now? Dawn: I'm technically 25 now, since you are behind on your updating... Me: Shut-Up!) If you didn't get any of that, don't worry, I cover it all in the next few chapters.

I was debating adding Galaxia, but I don't think I wil, I don't really want to confuse people, and since this story starts before the Sailor Stars season begins, then Galaxia has never been encountered before. I may change my mind later, but if she does show up it won't be for a while.

2 more OC's in this chapter, they are important as well.

Anyway, think on it as you read the chapter...

* * *

**Chapter 7**

_What is Queen Beryl doing here?! _I thought frantically, _Didn't I destroy her using the silver crystal? Did she somehow find a way to come back and is she now after my family…_

I was broken out of my frantic thoughts by a loud squeal, "Auntie Bee!" I stared in astonishment when Dawn threw her arms around Beryl and hugged her like she hasn't seen her in a long time. Dawn let the older woman go and open the house, still talking excitedly with the evil queen. I followed meekly behind them, still unsure as to what was happening. I spotted Luna sitting in the kitchen where we were headed and I saw her eyes bug out when she saw who was with Dawn. I made a jerking motion with my head, waving her to head towards the study on the other side of the entrance.

"What is Queen Beryl doing here and why is your sister acting so friendly with her?" Luna hissed at me, her ears twitching frantically.

"I'm not sure," I replied, "Maybe she isn't Beryl, maybe she's just a really good look alike."

"I don't believe in coincidence Serena, something strange is going on," Luna whispered.

I opened my mouth to reply, but was interrupted by Dawn shouting my name. "Serena! Where did you go?" I walked back towards the kitchen and there stood my sister, pouring coffee for one of my worst enemies.

I had to force out a smile to keep from attacking the woman. "I'm sorry, you two seemed like you had a lot to talk about and I didn't want to interrupt you," I answered her, still glancing warily at the red headed woman.

"No, it's alright. Serena, I would like you to meet someone, this is Beryl Black. She's a good friend of our adoptive parents so her and her wife Helen are like aunts to us. They've been on vacation all summer, so I was a little excited to see her."

Beryl smiled warmly at me and held out her hand. "It's a pleasure meeting you Serena, Dawn and Stella told me they had another sister still at home with those horrible excuses for parents, I'm just glad you got away," she said, shaking my hand.

"Uh, thanks," I replied, still slightly confused.

The older woman giggled, "Oh Dawn, she looks and acts exactly like you when you were that age, still a little confused and overwhelmed."

"Stop making fun of my sister Aunt Bee," Dawn chastised, but her eyes were full of humor, "And where is Aunt Helen, shouldn't she have come with you if you wanted to see us?"

Beryl rolled her eyes, "She's still recovering from jet lag, so she'll be pretty much useless for a few day but we'll both come over when she feels better. I'm sure she wants to meet her new niece just as much as I did."

This conversation was just too weird for me to handle right now. "Um, if you both would excuse me, I'm going to head upstairs and organize my notebooks for class tomorrow."

Dawn nodded, "If you come down around 5 we can work out something for dinner and you can help me with it."

I nodded my head in agreement, and raced up the stairs with Luna hot on my heels. Bolting into my room and locking the door, I flung myself onto my bed and covered my face with a pillow, screaming in frustration.

"Did you understand anything of what was happening downstairs?" I asked Luna once I had removed the pillow from my face. "I mean, that was Beryl right, Queen Beryl, who we supposedly defeated two years ago?"

Luna looked as baffled as I was. "It looks like her, Dawn even said her name was Beryl, so it must be her, but I don't understand how…"

I just stared at the ceiling, trying to figure out the situation I now found myself in, but then I remembered something that Ber… that woman said and bolted upright. "Beryl said I looked like Dawn when she was my age, that means that she had to have known Dawn when she was 16. Does that mean she was here the whole time? If she was here, who did I fight?" I glanced over at Luna and saw her face scrunch up. "What?" I asked her, giving her my complete focus.

"I don't know, something is bothering me, like I'm trying to remember something, but I just can't. I've been having the problem for awhile, ever since we got here actually."

"Really, what do you think it could mean?"

"I have no idea, but I think the best thing to do right now is to accept things as is for now, until we can figure some things out.

I flopped back down on the bed and stared at the ceiling for another five minutes before sighing and resigning myself to getting up. "Well," I said, hopping off the bed and heading over towards my desk, "I'm going to do what I said I was going to and get my notebooks sorted." I unlocked and opened the door for Luna, "Why don't you go find Sasha and play or something. I think I saw her dart in the house when Dawn opened the door. I know she's just a regular cat, but I also know you like playing with her."

Luna blushed but stuck her nose up in the air and walked out of the room looking for her golden playmate. I snickered slightly; I knew she missed her new friend. When Dawn left to stay at Christa's apartment, Sasha went with her, so Luna was just a little bit lonely. I quickly started sorting through my notebooks, and writing down due dates and test dates in my planner so I wouldn't fall behind like I normally would. I finished just in time to head downstairs and help Dawn with dinner.

Heading downstairs, I noticed that Beryl was gone and Dawn was sitting on one the bar stools at the island looking through what looked like a photo album. "Hey," she said, not glancing up from her book, "Did you get everything sorted?"

I blanked for a moment at her question, then relaxed as I realized she was talking about my notebooks. "Yup, got them all arranged, even wrote down dates in my planner to help me not fall behind," I told her, hopping onto my own stool.

She chuckled, "That's why they provide those planners at the beginning of the year, if you're dedicated enough to use it. I never could, I just kept track of everything in my head."

"Really?" I asked her, not believing she couldn't keep up with anything, let alone a simple planner.

"Yeah, I hate lists, especially to-do lists, very depressing." We both laughed at this and set about making dinner. We settled on grilled chicken and steamed vegetables with cheese sauce over pasta. Dawn had me boiling the pasta and steaming the vegetables while she grilled the chicken and made the sauce.

"So," Dawn started once we had sat down to eat at the counter, "I was thinking since I technically didn't really get you anything for your birthday," I started to interrupted but she waved it off, "A computer doesn't count you needed that for school, and everything else was stuff that you needed. I was thinking about something that you didn't necessarily need, but would want anyway."

I thought for a moment before hesitantly agreeing, "Alright, what did you have in mind?"

Dawn looked at me for a moment before answering, "A friend of mine from college is a vet at an animal shelter and she told me they just rescued a lot of dogs so…"

"You want to get me a dog?" I asked her in shock, but also excitement. I mean, I love Luna, but I've always wanted a dog.

"Well, puppy actually, you would have to take care of it and everything and learn to train it, but I think it would be good for you, teach you some responsibility and such."

I squealed and hugged her, practically vibrating on my stool I was so excited. "When are we going?" I asked, super excited to finally be getting a dog.

"Calm down," Dawn ordered when it looked like I was going to vibrate right off my stool, "We won't end up going until Saturday, it's my day off and you have school, so just relax until then."

"But what if they're all gone by then?" I pouted at having to wait.

Dawn just rolled her eyes, "They won't be; they haven't even started advertising yet. The vet told me because we're friends so actually, you get first pick of whatever they have."

I squealed again and was about to throw myself at Dawn to hug her before she sent me a look that told me to shut up and eat my dinner.

"What was that book you were looking at when I came down earlier," I asked her as we cleaned up from dinner.

"Oh," Dawn said as she dried her hands with the dishtowel, "A photo album Aunt Bee had made from their vacation pictures. Do you want to take a look?"

I hesitated slightly, still unsure what to make of the woman who I thought for sure was the enemy, before accepting the book that was pushed towards me. "Where did they go?"

"The Hawaiian islands. I've always wanted to go, but have never found the time. They took a lot of pictures when they visited the volcanic park," Dawn gave out a little sigh, "I really want to visit some day."

I let out a little chuckle, which caught instantly in my throat when I saw who was standing next to Beryl in the first picture. _You've got to be kidding me…_ "Would it be alright if I take these pictures upstairs to look at them later?"

Dawn looked a little puzzled before nodding her head, "Oh hey, I'm going to be watching some stuff I DVRed later if you want to come down and watch with me, I know that your teachers didn't give you any homework on the first day."

I nodded my head in agreement, rushing up the stairs to drop the album on my bed. Picking up my planner, I trotted back down the stairs and plopped down on the couch next to Dawn. She had turned on one of the random crime shows she records as she checked her email on her ipad. I settled in and opened the planner, flipping to the section about clubs at the school.

"Hey Dawn, what clubs do you think I should join?" I asked her, quickly scanning the various groups.

"I didn't know you wanted to join a club," Dawn responded, glancing over at me before looking back at the T.V. then down at her tablet.

I shrugged, "I didn't really join clubs at my old school, no one would let me since I wasn't good at anything."

Dawn snorted, "That defeats the whole purpose of a club then doesn't it? It's supposed to be a group of people that enjoy what they do and want to learn more."

"What clubs were you a part of when you were at school?"

"Oh all sorts of clubs, I wanted to expand my horizons in all sorts of areas. Archery, fencing, French club, Art club, theater, etc., etc., after I got good enough at archery and fencing, I joined the teams and started competing, even kept it up when I went to college."

"I thought you went to Julliard?"

"I did, but I also went to NYU. I wanted another degree to fall back on incase musical theater didn't work out for me, that's where I met my friend, the one who works at the animal shelter. She, her sister and I shared an apartment while we went to school and worked, functioning on about 5 hrs of sleep a night, adversity and about 7 cups of coffee a day," she sighed dramatically, "Those were the days."

I giggled, before I returned my focus to the club listing in my book, "Oh hey, the archery club's advisor is my science teacher, Ms. Blanchard."

"Well that's convenient, maybe you should go to the first meeting, see if you like it. If you don't like it, you don't have to continue going; now, any other clubs strike your fancy," Dawn asked, turning on the couch to face me, curling her legs up underneath her.

I flipped through the pages, "Ah, the fencing club's supervisor is Dr. Isles, Anna wants us to try and get into her AP biology class next semester."

"I've heard of Dr. Isles, she's very smart, was a successful Medical Examiner I think before she took time off to raise her children; she can fence?"

"I guess so…" I murmured, looking back at the brief bio, "Ah, it mentions here she competed in fencing for her boarding school years ago, I guess she really likes fencing."

Dawn thought for a moment, "Well, it would give you a chance to get to know her. Ah, though if I remember, you have to recommended for some classes, maybe you should take archery too, get closer to your other science teacher, what are the club schedules like?"

I glanced back down, "Fencing is on Monday afternoons and archery is Wednesday afternoons."

"Today's Wednesday, but I hardly doubt they would start clubs this week, probably next week, any other clubs or teams you thinking of joining?" Dawn asked, still half watching whatever was on the T.V.

I shrugged, "Not sure yet, Anna said Sofya, our new friend, is on the swim team and a part of the band and Brigitte, someone else I met today, is on the basketball team, but I'm not sure I want to play any sports on top of the archery and fencing clubs."

"Fair enough, you don't have to make up your mind now, you can always join team later on or attend club meetings later. I didn't join the French club until halfway through my junior year, so you don't have to make up your mind right now," Dawn replied, squeezing my hand gently before turning back to her show.

We continued to watch for another two hours, before I excused myself at 8:00 to take a bath. Pouring a mixture of bath salts and bubble bath into the tub, I filled the tub with steaming hot water. Moaning as I entered the tub, I eased back and put my ipod touch on shuffle, sighing as the music quietly filled the bathroom. Even though my injuries were healed by now, I was still slightly sore in areas and a good long soak in the tub at night tends to help.

Humming quietly to myself, I bent my head back on the towel behind my head, my hair pulled up in a bun so as not to get wet. I stayed in the tub until the water got cold. Wrapping myself up in a towel, I exited the bathroom, letting my hair flow free down my back. I noticed Luna sitting on the window seat. "It feels so much better now that my hair no longer trails on the floor," I commented. She chuckled quietly before jumping down to make her way to my bed.

"You've said that every night since you've gotten your hair cut," she replied as she settled herself next to the photo album, "Are these the pictures from Beryl's vacation?"

"Yeah, look at the first picture in the book," I told her, picking up my pajamas from the edge of the bed.

Luna flipped the book open and blanched at the first page, "Is that…?"

"Yup, it's Nehellenia, or Aunt Helen as Dawn calls her," I shook my head, "What is going on here? We fought Queen Nehellenia last year, but this indicates that she was here last year, I mean, why would she be battling us in Tokyo when her family was here in America." I was so confused, none of this was making any sense.

"Maybe what we think was happening wasn't actually what was happening," Luna answered slowly as I slipped into my pjs.

"That doesn't make any sense," I informed her as I turned back to face her.

Luna crossed her eyes and huffed at me, "What I mean is that maybe who you all fought weren't who we thought they were, maybe it was someone in disguise of enemies in the past."

"But who would do that?"

The black cat scrunched up her nose slightly, "I don't know… Something is still bothering me, I haven't been able to think of what it was."

I shrugged, "Well, maybe you should sleep on it, maybe both of us should sleep on it. I do have school in the morning and I would rather not look like a raccoon." Luna chuckled and we both retired to bed, hoping that answers would rise like the morning sun.

* * *

"C'mon Dawn, wake-up, it's Saturday, we're going to get me a puppy today," I cried as I started bouncing on my sister's bed.

"Serena," a muffled whine came from under the covers, followed by a hand reaching for the cell phone sitting on the bedside table. When the cell phone disappeared under the covers with the hand, a groan came forth from the disgruntled lump, "It's 6 in the morning! The animal shelter doesn't even open until 8!"

I grinned sheepishly at Dawn as she poked her head out of the covers to glare at me, "Well you know, I'm rather excited, and I thought breakfast and showers would take a while."

She sighed and motioned me to get off, "Alright, alright, I'm up, let me shower and get dressed, and then I'll go downstairs and see about breakfast. Awe look, you scared poor Sasha."

I looked over at the gold cat that had been sleeping at the foot of Dawn's bed when I jumped on it but was now curled up in a ball on the window seat, shaking. "Awe, I'm sorry Sasha," I cooed at her, stroking her head to get her to calm down, "I'm just really excited to make a new friend today." She moved her head in my hand, which I guess means I'm forgiven for scaring her.

Dawn shooed me out and I went back to my own room to shower. Once I scrubbed all the sleep cooties off myself and out of my hair, I dried and dressed, pulling my jeans on as I hopped down the hall toward the stairs. Shoes in hand, I tromped down the stairs and into the kitchen. Leaning against the counter to set my flip-flops on the ground, I looked over and Dawn who was frying a few eggs.

"What we having?" I asked breathlessly as I slipped my feet into my shoes.

"Fried egg sandwiches with bacon, lettuce and tomato," she replied shortly. I bit back a grin as I realized she was still a bit put out about being woken up so early.

"I am sorry about waking you up by the way," I put in, trying to appease the rainy cloud that had settled over her head.

She glared at me. "No you're not," Dawn huffed, "I so rarely get a Saturday I can sleep in, and you encroach on my sleepy time with your demands…"

"Sssoooorrryyyyy," I wheezed out, trying not to laugh. Dawn just glared at me again, and turned back to the eggs.

Dawn finished making the sandwiches, and after she got some food and coffee in her, my oldest sister was much more agreeable. She shuffled me out of the door and into Stella's Jeep Wrangler.

"Why are we taking Stella's car?" I asked her as she climbed into the driver's seat.

"Because I want to stop by a greenhouse near the animal shelter, I ordered some indoor plants for my room, make it a bit more cheery you know, and they've finally arrived. It's been awhile since I ordered them so I would like to get them as soon as possible," Dawn answered, pulling out of the driveway. We drove close to 45 minutes before pulling into a nice looking facility that had fenced in yards in front of and in back of the building. "This is the place, c'mon, let's get you a dog."

I jumped out of the jeep and quickly followed her into the building. Dawn spoke to a person sitting behind the desk who left shortly after Dawn spoke to him. "He's gone to get my friend," she answered me, seeing the questioning look on my face.

We only waited a few minutes before a young woman walked over towards us. She appeared to be about mid-twenties, a little older than Dawn maybe, with dark brown hair and deep forest green eyes.

"Dawn," she said, walking over to us and embracing my sister, "It's been a while since the last time you've been to see us."

Dawn grinned sheepishly, "I know, I'm sorry, I've been a bit busy finishing up the last show, starting a new one and making sure Serena settled in nicely."

At the mention of my name, the other woman turned towards me. "You must be Serena," she said, "My name is Fauna, Fauna Boxer, most people around here call me Doc, but since you're Dawn's sister, you can call me Fauna."

"It's nice to meet you Fauna," I replied, shaking her hand.

"You too Serena, so you're here to adopt a dog?" She asked, walking towards where, I assume, the dogs were kept.

I nodded in response, keeping up with her, Dawn following closely behind, "I have a cat right now, but I've always wanted a dog, and Luna's fine with dogs as far as I can tell."

Fauna nodded, "People always assume that cats hate dogs, when a majority of the time, they remain indifferent to them as they do everything else within their realm. Do you still have that little imp, Dawn?"

"Sasha's not an imp," Dawn retorted, "She's just a little on the frisky side, anyway, she acts more like a dog than a cat most times anyway, having spent a lot of time with Essie when she was younger."

Fauna chuckled, "Oh yes, Stella's creature. I still can't believe that customs lets Essie through into France, they have no idea what they're doing."

Dawn snorted in response and the two shared a silent snicker, while I wondered what they were talking about. I only spent a few days with Essie before Stella and she went traveling, must be something I don't know.

"Well, anyway, the dogs are in here," Fauna said, opening a door leading to the kennels, "Have a look around, we'll be right behind you. If you find one you like, just motion us over."

I nodded my head and began browsing the cages. Most of the dogs were at the front of the cages, eyeing me warily, some were barking while others were simply sniffing at me. There were dogs of all sizes with all sorts of coat colors. I could only tell what a few of the dogs were, like Collies, German Shepherds and Beagles, but some of them were complete mysteries to me. Walking down the aisle, I was suddenly captivated by a small, white puppy curled up in one of the kennels. I was startled when it's head popped up to stare at me with its large, grey eyes. Bending down to get a better look, I put my hand on the cage, and it came closer, sniffing my hand and licking it when it decided I was okay. My heart melted into mush when it looked at me again with those peculiar eyes.

"This is the one," I said, looking back to where Dawn and Fauna were, "This little one right here."

Fauna walked over and looked in the cage. "This one?" She asked, "She's a cute little one, mixed breed from what we could tell when we she first came, bit on the quiet side though, so you'll really have to pay attention to her."

"Do you know what kind of breeds she has in her," Dawn asked when she came over, reaching out her hand to stroke the soft head.

Fauna shrugged, "Great Pyrenees, Husky, maybe even some wolf in there, it would explain the eyes, generally only the white arctic wolves have that eye color. She's a little on the small side though, but that won't matter, I have a feeling she'll grow, maybe when she's bigger we'll have a better idea." She stood up and unlocked the cage, picking up the puppy before it could rush out of its container. "I'll go get her placed in a dog carrier while you two go back to the front room and fill out the paperwork, fees etc."

I filled out the paperwork while Dawn paid the adoption fee and for the dog carrier as well as a temporary leash and collar. She told me it was just until I could buy my own with the allowance she's been giving me.

"Do you know what you're going to name her?" Dawn asked as we left the animal shelter, dog carrier in tow.

I thought for a moment, looking down at the small white ball of fluff. "Jacey, Jace for short," I replied thinking for a minute, "It means moon, and she kinda looks like it, with the white fur and all."

"Jacey," Dawn murmured, testing the name, "I like it, it's simple, she'll fit right in with Essie, Luna and Sasha, no complicated names there, and no stupid ones either." With both giggled as we turned back down the road and pulled up in front of a greenhouse. "I'm going to go in here real quick, do you want to leave Jacey here and come in to see if you want anything, we won't be but 10 minutes."

I looked back to see Jacey asleep in her carrier on the back seat and nodded, "10 minutes won't hurt."

We walked into the greenhouse, and as soon as we walked in, a person approached us. "Fauna?" I asked confused. Fauna stood in front of me, but she was just at the animal shelter.

'Fauna' giggled. "You must have just met my sister, I'm Flora," she corrected, holding out her hand, "We're identical twins, the only difference is that my eyes are lighter than hers."

I looked closer and noticed that they were a shade or two lighter green, more like a grass green. "That's how everyone tells them apart," Dawn said, hugging her friend, "It's been awhile Flora, I'm sorry for not visiting, I've just been really busy."

Flora laughed, "I know, I went to see your last play, you did a really good job. Heard you were already signed up for another one, so I figured I would hold your plants hostage until you came to see me. When Fauna told me you were coming to get your little sis a puppy, well, I phoned you to tell you they were here."

Dawn gave her a shocked look, "You dirty rat, how long have you had them?"

Flora shrugged and gave her an innocent look, "Over a month, tell me you wouldn't have had me deliver them if I had told you."

I snorted at the dirty look Dawn gave Flora, breaking them out of their weird little staring contest. "Alright, let's get your plants and schedule in a lunch date in your planner," Flora sang on her way towards the register to collect the small plants she had set out there.

My older sister sighed and I giggled. "Try living with both of them," she muttered.

"They seem like fun," I answered, watching as Flora talked to the plants as she pulled them altogether.

"Oh they are, but together, they're scary," Dawn sighed again has Flora bounced her way over to us, plants in hand. After confirming that she would have lunch with both Flora and Fauna the next week, we loaded the plants into the jeep and left.

Once we got home, Dawn laid down the ground rules for Jacey. Basically, I would take care of her, train her, walk her and such, and Dawn would pay for her food. Any toys and other things, I had to pay for, and I also had to clean up any accidents in the house. "Rooms in the house Jacey can't go into are the library, Stella's side of the house is pretty much off limits when she's not here except for cleaning, the studio on the third floor and the basement. If someone is with her, she can go in my room, but not unsupervised," Dawn finished before her phone rang.

I opened the cage and let Jacey out, letting her sniff around in her new home. "Ah, take her out," Dawn said when she got off the phone, "They're taught not to go in the kennels or carriers, so she probably has to pee."

After making sure Jacey went to the bathroom outside, I came back inside and noticed that Dawn had changed her clothes. "Going somewhere?" I asked her.

"Hmm," she said, turning towards me, "Yes, the director has called me back in, I'm observing the play tonight, before I start my roll as understudy next week, then to the lead roll when the contracts run out in a month."

"Is that how plays are usually done on Broadway?" I wondered, completely curious.

Dawn shrugged, "If it's a running play it is, I was brought in rather late though, the understudy that was supposed to take the part had to drop out due to surgery, so when I became available, the director called me."

"When are you going to be home?"

"Not 'til later, I'm apparently observing the afternoon and evening shows to make sure I have all the nuances of the workings of this stage. I've been through this all before, though not this rushed."

I nodded, and kept an eye on Jacey as she wandered around, sniffing at the furniture. "Do you need anything before I leave?" Dawn asked, "Want to call Anna and have her to come over?"

"Nah, I'll be fine, I mean, Luna, Sasha and Jacey are here. I can work on my potato impression on the couch," I answered her, setting out some water and puppy food for Jacey.

"Okay, well, I'm heading out, don't wait up for me, credit card's in the drawer if you want to order something, fridge and freezer is stocked if you want to cook something. You have my cell phone number if you need anything?"

I nodded and just as she was about to walk out the door, I remembered that I wanted to ask her something, "What play are you in anyway?"

She grinned, "Elphaba in _Wicked_, the Wicked Witch of the West of course, she ya later."

"Figures," I murmured, shaking my head absently. "Jacey," I called, having lost track of the puppy. I found her in the hallway… having just made a mess on the floor. "Oh no," I cried, "You just went outside!" I took Dawn's advise on house training, and rubbed Jacey's nose in her own mess. It nearly broke my heart hearing the whine, but it had to be done. I cleaned up after her. "Now this is the last time I'm doing this," I told the small dog with a tone of finality, sounding firmer that I actually felt.

"Alright, c'mon, upstairs, you can see where you'll be sleeping at you can meet Luna and Sasha. I'm pretty sure they're both upstairs," I told Jacey, picking up the puppy to help her up the stairs. "Luna," I yelled once I got to the top of the stairs.

"What?" Came a muffled voice from my room. I walked into my room and found both her and Sasha chilling out on my window seat.

"Glad to see you both making yourselves at home," I said, placing Jacey down on the floor.

Luna stiffened up, "What is that?" She was looking at the cautiously approaching puppy.

"Her name is Jacey, Luna, and I got her today, isn't she adorable?" I cooed, watching as Jacey tried to get up on the window seat as well but her legs were too small to hoist her up that high.

Sasha was just the opposite of Luna, and jumped down to see who the new creature was. The golden cat poked at the white puppy with one paw, as if testing out a new cushion. I watched as Jacey sniffed at Sasha with her cold nose before giving a great big long lick to the cat's face. It seemed like it was an act Sasha was familiar with as the feline just took it all in stride, still poking at Jacey's side and head with her paw.

"See," I said, turning back to Luna, "Sasha likes her, so you can get used to her as well."

"Sasha is an abnormal cat who has lived with a dog for most of her life, I however, am a talking cat who has never had a good experience with the canine species," Luna hissed at me, still watching Jacey from her perch.

I chuckled and picked Jacey up, plopping her down on the window seat next to Luna. The puppy immediately started sniffing her new 'friend,' who had frozen in shock at being in such close quarters with a dog. "You'll learn to love her," I told Luna, sitting down at my next and pulling up my email on the computer. I wanted to send an email to Mina and tell her about Jacey. Quickly snapping a picture of the animals clustered on the seat, I uploaded the picture to my email.

_Hey Love Goddess!_

_Guess what? My oldest sister got me a late birthday present; you want to know what it is? A puppy! I uploaded a picture of her with the email; her name is Jacey. Luna was not thrilled of course, but Sasha, Dawn's cat, absolutely loves her. Sashsa grew up with a dog, so I guess that's why she's good with them._

_Anyway, I don't think I told you, but I saw Beryl, here, with Dawn. She's so different from when we fought her, that makes me wonder if we fought 'her' at all, maybe it was just someone disguised as Beryl or something. She's married to Nehellenia, I know this is like some weird soap opera, but it's true. They look so happy together, I looked through pictures of their last vacation to Hawaii. Why would they be attacking us in Tokyo, when they were perfectly happy and content here, doesn't make any sense._

_I just wanted to let you know what's going on here, and I want to hear about what is going on with you, how was your week at school?_

_Much Loves!_

_Moon Bunny_

I sent the email off, and closed my computer. Noticing the time and realizing it was almost lunchtime, I turned back to look at the animals and I had to laugh. Poor Luna was the bottom half of a Jacey sandwich. At some point the white puppy had crawled on top of the black cat, trapping Luna underneath her so she couldn't get away. Sasha, not wanting to feel left out, crawled on top of Jacey. Luna looked like she was about to blow a gasket and come out swinging so I quickly removed the two from on top of my guardian.

"Why don't we go on downstairs and work on some lunch?" I chuckled, Jacey in my arms and Luna draped over my shoulder. Sasha was somehow programmed to understand the word lunch because she bolted out of my room and down the stairs before we could even get there. I started to laugh again, while Luna merely grumbled.

"You better make my special lunch for the abuse I just had to endure," she muttered in my ear.

"Oh Luna, you think that was abuse? Just wait until Jacey wets on you because she's not completely house trained yet."

"… Why me…"

* * *

**A/N: **I decided to add thing with the clubs and advisors because some people wanted my cameo people to interact more with Serena, so since "Maura" on Rizzoli and Isles knows how to fence, and "Mary Margret Blanchard aka: Snow White" was excellent at archery, it fit well since I was planning on Serena participating in those events anyway. Again, the people themselves aren't important to the story line, it was just convenient for me.

Review!


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: This is shorter than my normal chapters, but readers have been requesting updates, so I will try my hardest. To make up for it though, I decided to give you guys a flash of the past, as well as bring in Michiru for the first time in this story. I'm going to skip ahead in time for the next chapter, because I can't write about every day or weekend, that's boring. Or even every email Mina or Michiru sends Serena. Mina and Serena email each other pretty much every few days. And Michiru and Serena will be communicating more in the future. Stella will also be coming back for a short period time next chapter before she leaves again.**

**I didn't get to edit this chapter, but I hope you guys like it!**

**Much thanks to Sora Yun Farron for encouraging me to finish this chapter**

* * *

**Chapter 8**

"You got a puppy?" Sofya asked me the next Monday at lunch. I had decided on a salad today for lunch because I didn't want to mess with the long line at the entrée bar.

"Yeah, she's adorable, white all over and Dr. Fauna, Dawn's friend, says she most likely a mix breed, even might have some wolf in her!" I squealed excitedly, "Wolves are my favorite animal."

Sofya sighed, "Your so lucky, I wish I could have one of my favorite animals."

I looked at her for a minute, and studied her slightly, "Polar bear or penguin?"

She gave me a wistful smile, "Both."

I giggled, and Sofya turned back to her food. We ate quickly for a few minutes before Anna bustled over with her food plate. "I can't believe you two passed up on cheeseburgers, it's very rare that they serve them, always giving us healthy crap."

"I made a cheeseburger over the weekend Anna," I told her, still eating my salad.

"And you know very well that I'm a vegetarian," Sofya put in, "So why exactly would I want a slab of beef?"

"They have tofu burgers?" Anna suggested weakly. Sofya just glared and Anna sank down in her seat under the withering look. I giggled at the two of them, crunching on a few of the carrots I added to the top of my salad.

Anna started eating her burger from the slumped position she sank into before sitting bolt upright again. "Shit, sit up straight, it's the Evil Queen," she whispered, staring at something over by the entrance.

I looked over to where she was looking and saw a woman with chin length raven black hair wearing a pencil skirt and crisp navy blouse. I noticed a significant drop of the noise level in the lunchroom and a shift among students as they straightened their posture. "Who is that?" I asked in a quiet voice. While the talking didn't cease completely, the decrease of noise discouraged me from speaking at a normal volume.

"Regina Mills, assistant headmistress," Sofya whispered back, "Fiona is the nice, floaty and spacey headmistress, but Madame Mills is the one who actually runs the place and everyone knows it; she's known as the Evil Queen amongst the students, but we all know better than to say it to her face."

"The Evil Queen? Like from Snow White?" I asked, trying to understand how they connected the two.

"She has a apple fetish from what I hear," Sofya shrugged, "No one knows how she got the name, it just kinda happened. She's the main reason why barely anyone breaks the dress code, you have to deal with her."

"But what is she doing here, in the lunchroom," Anna hissed, "She never comes here, she _dislikes_ rude manners and bad posture."

I watched the woman as she strode with confidence into the room, but noticed that her eyes were locked on something behind me. Turning to look, I saw a tall blond in an officer's jacket returning the glare that Madame Mills was giving her. "I think that person," I said, motioning towards the blonde, "is her target."

"Ah, she's the new campus security officer," Sofya said, "but I don't know her name."

"Emma Swan," Anna interjected, "She's really nice, kinda sarcastic; I think she and Ms. Blanchard are related somehow, they have similar facial features."

"Do they," I started, subtly pointing my finger between the two women, "Hae something going on?"

Before Anna or Sofya had a chance to respond, Madame Mills reached the smirking blonde and yanked on her arm, pulling her out of the cafeteria. "Oh my word," Anna gasped, "Did you see that? Sooo much sexual tension between the two of them."

"Seriously Anna? The Madame looked like she was going to kill Swan," Sofya refuted.

"I'm telling you guys, something is going to develop between them at some point, probably during an argument."

Sofya rolled her eyes. "Anyway," she said, turning to me, "You're going to the fencing club meeting this afternoon?"

"Yeah," I answered, "Dawn told me she was part of the fencing team and it seems like fun."

"Also a good way to get to know Dr. Isles," Anna interjected, "Get a recommendation for AP classes that she teaches."

"That is secondary," I protested.

Anna grinned, "So you did think about it."

"Just shut-up, lunch is almost over and I would like to finish my salad."

The rest of lunch, and, in fact, the rest of the day passed relatively peacefully. Gym class wasn't as horrible as I originally thought it would be; each class we started out by running or walking a few laps on the track, which was located just behind the gym, and a few light stretches to warm up. Coach Wood had informed us last week that we would be learning different sports and games to keep us active and to have fun in class. While the weather was nice, we were to play out on the field, so he had us playing a schedule of flag football, soccer and tennis. I had hoped that today would be the day for tennis, but soccer was the draw for the day. I exhausted myself running around the field after the soccer ball, tripping every now and then.

When I had taken my fitness test last week, Coach Wood found out about my clumsiness and made it his mission to 'cure' me. I told him it was a lost cause, but he just laughed me off. He promised me if I gave as much effort as he gave me, I would be walking on a balance beam in no time. That would probably be another reason for why I'm joining the different clubs, more practice. Besides, I promised myself when I left to live with my sisters, that I would be a better person, a different person.

Once class was over, I hopped in one of the showers in the back of the locker room, rising off the sweat and dirt from falling all over the place. I placed my sweats back in my locker along with my gym shoes and jogged up the stairs to one of the dance studios. I entered the room, and noticed a few other people there waiting.

A few minutes after I got there, a beautiful middle aged blonde woman walked into the room. "Hello everyone," she said, "This is the introductory meeting for fencing club. I am the supervisor Dr. Isles. I see some familiar faces among you, which is good. This is a club to teach people how to fence in a non-competitive environment. If you like to compete, I suggest you join the fencing team instead." When no one got up to leave, Dr. Isles counted us all out, "Ah good, there's an even amount of you to partner up. Since this is a club, you don't have to come every meeting if you have other responsibilities to take care of. I will usually be at these meetings, but if I'm unable to come, I will leave a note." She explained more rules about the club, and how for the first few meetings after this one, she would teach us how to fence, but she expected us to practice on our own outside of the meetings if we wanted to get better. After about half an hour, Dr. Isles left and I headed out to the parking lot to head home.

"Dawn!" I yelled when I got home.

"Down here," I heard a muffled yell coming from the basement. I hopped down the stairs and saw my older blond sister running on the treadmill. "Hey," she breathed, still running, "How was school, oh and how was your club meeting?"

"School was fine, and the meeting went really well. I really liked Dr. Isles, she is super nice, and very well put together. I've never seen such fancy clothing on a teacher in my entire life," I told her.

"She sounds nice," Dawn huffed, "Oh, by the way, if you're going to do fencing and archery, I suggest you work on your upper body strength. You're going to need some strength in your arms to pull the bow string." She gestured to the weight machine across the room and the hand weights, "Remember you can use the stuff down here anytime."

I nodded, "Thanks Dawn, I'm going to go work on some homework, and make sure Jacey and Luna haven't torn apart me room."

Dawn huffed out a laugh, "When I get done down here, I'm going to shower and fix dinner before heading into town for work."

"Have you learned all your lines?" I asked her.

"For the most part, hopefully I won't have to go on, since I'm just the understudy. The main actress still has another few weeks before her contract ends. I'll be back late, but I expect you to be in bed since it's a school night."

"All right Mom, geez," I rolled my eyes, and headed back up stairs. "Jacey," I called, reaching the second floor. A few minutes later, a small white blur tumbled up to me, plopping herself down at my feet. "Hello girl," I bent down to scoop the puppy up, "How are you doing?"

Jacey nuzzled my face, indicating that she had a good day. I walked into my room and saw Luna laying on my pillow. "Did you have a good day?" I asked my guardian.

Luna glared at me, "I had to babysit a dog all day."

"Nah, Dawn was here, she let Jacey out right?"

"That's beside the point, and Sasha was no help, she just kept encouraging the puppy to play, then disappeared when the white fur ball really got excited."

"Well she looks really tired now," I said, looking at the dozing puppy in my arms. I set Jacey down in her puppy bed and sat down at my desk, opening my computer. I saw I had new emails, and noticed that Mina has responded to my last message.

_Heya Moon Bunny,_

_ OMG! Beryl and Nehellenia married? Odd couple, but I guess we really don't know them very well. Maybe what we thought happened, isn't what really happened back in the day._

_ My week at school was fabulously amazing, but I have to tell you something, I am in love. *sigh, I know I might have said this before, but this time I really mean it. Picture this; I'm sitting in my first class, and in walks my soul mate. Older, tall, dark and drop dead gorgeous, and I was instantly swept away in love. You notice I didn't say handsome? Well, my soul mate… Is a girl, well, woman I guess. Her name is Aiden, she's a senior, and was helping with freshman orientation (I did tell you it's a 3 year school right? So technically I'm a freshman). I was awestruck, completely and totally besotted right then and there. Though I've been freaking out with how to talk to her and stuff, she's a senior! This is very stressful._

_ I don't know what to do, help me Moon Bunny!_

_A very Frustrated Goddess of Love_

_P.S. Did I tell you I gave Michiru your email address to contact you? I can't remember if I did or not. Anyway, she said she was going to email you at some point so be on the lookout!_

I blinked at the end of the email. _Michiru wants to contact me and Mina is in love… Mina being in love I'm not surprised about, but Michiru contacting me? I wonder what she wants to talk about._

"Did Mina email you?" Luna word's broke into my thoughts.

"Huh, yeah," I replied carelessly, flipping back to my inbox, seeing an email from an unknown account. I clicked on it and sure enough it was from Michiru.

"Well what did she say?" Luna interrupted.

"Oh, the usual. How things are going with her, what school is like, she's fallen in love with an older student. Normal stuff for her basically."

Luna seemed satisfied with my answer because she drifted back off to sleep so I shifted my attention entirely to the message in front of me.

_Usagi,_

_ I'm not sure where to even start with this email other than saying that I am deeply sorry for what happened to you. I was so angry at what the other senshi said to you. I broke up with Haruka the minute that I heard. Don't worry about me though, I wasn't as broken up about it as I might have been months ago. We've been having problems since I've been touring in Europe more, I actually only came back to Japan to pack my things since I was offered a full time job in France._

_ When Minako told me what you're parents did to you, I was completely horrified that someone could do something so horrible to you of all people. To be truthful Usagi, you're possibly one of the kindest, most loving individuals I've ever met, and I feel that I've become a better person since knowing you. Minako gave me your information weeks ago, but I haven't known what to say to you._

_ The only thing I can say to you at this point is to beg for your forgiveness. You are my princess, and I, as one of your protectors, failed to protect you, and failed to see the danger within._

_Michiru_

"What do I do with this?" I murmured to myself. I leaned back in my chair and closed my eyes to think for a few minutes. Michiru and I were never really close; we had become sort of friends over the past few months, but as an outer senshi, she maintained a distance between us. _It seems she is apologizing for more than just what the other senshi and my parents did; it seems like she's apologizing for not being more of a friend to me._ I didn't know what to say to the senshi of Neptune, so I decided to respond to Mina's email first.

_Dear Frustrated Love Goddess,_

_ I'm not sure what to do with that information. I mean, you've sworn you've found your soul mate before, so what makes this situation any different. Although, this is the first time you've said a girl, well, woman is your soul mate. Why don't you just get to know her first? She is a senior, so maybe you can ask her to help you with your classes, get used to the school and stuff. However, first you actually have to talk to her. I know you can do it, you're one of the most self-confident people I know._

_ And as for Michiru, yes, she did email me to apologize for everything basically, for what my parents did, for what the senshi did and for what she didn't do. I'm not quite sure what to do with that, but I have to answer her so after I get finished with this I'll email her back. Maybe we'll develop a friendship or maybe we'll just continue to be acquaintances, either way, this is another step for me to put what happened in the past behind me._

_ I'll talk to you later this week, let me know what happens with Aiden, and try to send me a picture of your true love so I can match a picture to a face._

_Much Loves!_

_Moon Bunny_

I sighed as I sent the email off, thinking about how I was going to respond to Michiru's email. I wanted to be friends with the sea senshi I really did. I had always felt something around the older girl that I couldn't quite place, something that caused my heart to flutter and a feeling of contentment to settle in it.

_Dear Michiru,_

_ You don't have anything to apologize for, you didn't know. I would like to be able to put this behind us and move on from who we were in the past. I am no longer the moon princess and you are no longer an outer senshi; we are Usagi and Michiru, two people who knew each other and might grow into friends eventually._

_ I hope in the future that we can be friends one day. Feel free to email any time and let me know how you're life is going, or just to talk._

_Usagi_

I sent the email off to the mysterious sea green haired senshi and sighed, before pulling out my books to get started on my homework.

* * *

Later that night after dinner, I was watching TV on the couch with Jacey and Luna curled up around me on the couch. I started to lightly doze off as it was getting late. As I was falling asleep, I started to dream. Dreaming is always a dangerous thing for me because dreams were often memories of the past or visions of the future, neither of which I cared to see right now. However, this dream was different; it felt real, like I was truly part of the dream, but I felt safe and content…

_Dreamscape_

_ I was sitting in a garden just outside the palace walls, enjoying the time by myself. Ever since the princes and princesses of the other kingdoms came to the moon to seek training to become full-fledged knights, I hadn't had any peace. The knights weren't the problem; it was their squires, their younger siblings that were the problem for the most part. My cousin Mina wasn't so bad, but the rest of the squires from the inner planets were completely awful._

_ Fortunately, Anna, my best friend, also training to be a knight, kept them away since they were scared of her. Suddenly a noise behind me broke me from my musing. Twisting around, I saw girl with sea green hair staring at me curiously. She appeared to be a few years older than me, and in studying her face I realized I recognized her._

_ "You're the squire from Neptune," I said, scrutinizing the older girl, "How did you get passed Anna?"_

_ The other girl looked confused for a minute. "Anna?" She asked, "Oh, you must mean the Knight of Saturn. I didn't realize I had to get past her. I was just looking for a place that was quiet; the squires from the other planets were getting on my nerves."_

_ I snorted, "Tell me about it. The ones from the inner planets haven't left me alone since they got here. I mean, don't they have classes, like, magic classes or something to go to?"_

_ "You would think so," the other girl said, moving to sit next to me, "They don't seem to be taking their duty as squires very seriously."_

_ "Doesn't look like it," I scoffed._

_ She smiled at me, and stuck out her hand. "I should probably introduce myself before you group me in with the rest of them. I'm Michelle, the Squire of Neptune as you know. I've seen you around the palace but I've never had a chance to speak to you. You're the youngest princess of the Moon aren't you?"_

_ I snorted, "Ask my mother and any of the court and they'll tell you that I'm the only princess of the Moon. My name is Selena, despite what my mother," I sneered at that, "might tell you."_

_ "Selena," Michelle said, testing out the name, "That's beautiful, I hope we become great friends."_

_ "Me too Michelle, you'll have to get through Anna though, she is my best friend. Mina too of course, since she's my cousin."_

_ Michelle laughed, "All right, deal, it'll be a pleasure to be your friend Selena…"_

_ Selena…_

_ Selena…_

"Serena!"

I jolted awake, looking around quickly. "Huh, what?" I saw Dawn leaning over me.

"I've been trying to wake you," she said, smiling down at me, "What are you doing down here? It's far passed midnight."

I looked over to the clock and saw that it was close to 2am and that the TV had gone shut off by itself. "I must've fallen asleep when I was watching TV," I mumbled, rubbing my eyes, "Why did you wake me?"

Dawn smiled, "I saw you sleeping in here when I got home. I was going to leave you, but the couch didn't look too comfortable. And you were mumbling and moving around a lot in your sleep that you would have fallen off eventually. What were you dreaming about anyway?"

I thought back to my dream, trying to catch the ting tendrils before they escaped, but I couldn't seem to remember. "I don't know," I replied honestly, "I don't really remember what happened."

My sister looked at me with concern in her eyes. "Do you need anything to drink? Tea, milk?"

I shook my head, "No, no, I'm fine, I'm just going to go upstairs to sleep for a few more hours."

"All right, do you need help taking Jacey and Luna upstairs?"

"No I got it, you go to bed; I imagine you're tired. When it's actually the morning, I want to hear all about the show."

"You got it, now off to bed," Dawn said, shooing me upstairs. I scooped up my furry critters and headed upstairs.

"Do you really not remember your dream?" Luna whispered from my shoulder, "You sounded really distressed."

"You saw that?" I asked her, placing her down on my bed.

"You woke me up with your mumbling, so do you really not remember or were you just saying that?"

I scrunched up my face to think, "I just remember flashes, moments of the dream, nothing concrete anyway. However, I do know I was on the Moon, and it looked way different than what Queen Serenity used to show me."

"How did it look?" Luna asked, "I can't remember the Moon, not really anyway."

"It was… beautiful, but cold," I replied, "It didn't seem like the all loving place that we've heard about, or remember in our memories; are you sure that you don't remember anything about the moon kingdom?"

Luna shook her head, "No, I can't remember anything at all; my past is a complete blank, but I know how you feel, something doesn't seem right about what was shown to us."

"Maybe this dreams are memories, like real memories."

"Or maybe it's just another distraction."

"If they were do you think I would forget everything about them?"

"Good point."

We sat in silence for a few minutes before I let out a big yawn. "It's too late to think about this anymore, and I have school in a few hours. I better get to bed, you too Luna."

"Mhm, goodnight Serena."

"Night Luna," I said, drifting back off into my dreams…**  
**

* * *

**A/N: Review please**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Wow, I got this done really fast, but I was really inspired to pick this story back up again in a fierce way. So there's another OC in this chapter, but he's like a mixture between an OC and a borrowed character. If anyone has watched Tinkerbell Secret of the Wings, you might recognize him as the keeper of all fairy knowledge.**

**Anyway, this chapter takes place in late september. Stella's birthday is September 22nd, the first day of Fall. The story is probably going to pick up after this, moving faster through time. Michiru and Serena are still emailing each other back and forth, so one of their conversations will be in the next chapter... Maybe... And maybe one from Mina too, jury is still out though...**

**Also, I think I forgot to mention this in an earlier chapter, but Brigitte speaks with a Southern American accent. I'll go back and edit that in at some point, but I've included it in this chapter**

**Anyway, review please**

* * *

**Chapter 9**

"So Stella is coming home next week for her birthday before heading to Paris and I have no clue what to get her!" I said to my friends at lunch. It was mid September and we had been at school for a few weeks. I had fallen into a routine of school, homework and club activities and finding time to work out to build up body strength as well as hanging out with my friends. That last one was pretty hard to manage with my schedule, but we often arrived at school early to get in socializing time. "Do either of you guys have any ideas?"

"Don't ask me," Sofya replied, eating her tofu salad, "I've never met either of your sisters so I don't know what Stella would like."

"Brigitte?" I asked, looking at the brunette.

"I've only seen her in passing at Christa's shop Serena. I've never really talked to her," the brunette replied, her southern accent drawing out her words. A week after classes started, Brigitte's teacher switched lunch period with another teacher so he could have lunch with his daughter everyday at the preschool across the road

"Anna you're my last hope?" I cried, turning to my dark haired friend.

Anna paused in her pizza mid chew to take in my pleading face. "I don't know either Sere," she gasped out around her food, "I've never spent time with her. Dawn's the one I see most often. Stella is a reclusive one and she's in France for most of the year."

"Uggh, you guys are no help," I said, slamming my head down on the table, "This is the first birthday I've spent with either of my sisters in years, and I have no clue what to get my own sister." Tears started forming in my eyes out of frustration. "I'm a horrible sister!" I wailed, placing my hands over my eyes.

"You're not a horrible sister," Anna said, patting my head gently, "You haven't seen them in years, so it's no surprise that you don't know them very well. I mean, you told me the last time you saw them you were a small child. Why don't you take what Stella likes now and find something from that?"

I perked up a little at that, "She's really into music; maybe I can make her a playlist or something."

"That's a good start," Brigitte said, "What else?"

I shrugged, "I don't know, get her something for her dog?"

"As a fellow musician, I like having lots of blank music pages around so I can work on my own compositions," Sofya put in, "Or maybe something to keep her music instruments polished."

"Why don't you ask Dawn for help," Anna said, "She knows Stella better than anyone and I'm sure she'll be willing to help you."

"Yeah I guess," I sighed, "I just wanted to be able to do this on my own."

"Sometimes you have to know when to ask for help when you've reached the end of your rope," Brigitte said.

"You've asked us for help, now just ask the person closest to both you and Stella," Sofya included, finishing up her salad.

"I guess I should. Dawn's picking me up after school today and we're going shopping; she has to pick up her own present for Stella so I'll ask her then."

"Good of you to take my advice," Sofya said, "I mean, my name does mean wisdom so my advice is usually worth taking."

Brigitte, Anna and I stared at Sofya for a minute, just blinking in disbelief before looking back at each other. "Just ignore her," Anna said, "This is her usual behavior."

The bell rang just then signaling the end of lunch, and my friends and I headed back to class. The rest of the day passed pretty quickly and before I knew it I was climbing into Dawn's car. "What should I get Stella for her birthday?" I asked immediately after I got into the car.

"Books, music, movies, clothes," Dawn offered, "Basic stuff like that. Unless she asks for something specific, I usually stick to those things."

"Ugh," I said, throwing my hands up in the hair, "That's all that I managed to come up with at lunch. I wanted to get her something good, something special since I haven't been around these last few years."

"Serena, I'm sure Stella will love whatever you get her."

I sighed and sulked in my seat the entire way to the store. "Stop sulking Serena," Dawn said as we walked into possibly one of the weirdest stores I've ever seen. Shelves of stuff consisted of half the building, while things flying planes and other things hung from the ceiling.

"What is this place?" I gasped, looking around.

"This is one of Stella's favorite stores; they have just about everything in here, all sorts of things. The guy who owns this place is super nice, and often finds things for us when we need them. There's an old bookstore on the top floor and that's where I'm headed. Last time I was here, I saw a few books Stella would like so I'm hoping they're still here. Why don't you look around down here, see what there is to find," Dawn said mysteriously, "I always find something new every time I come in here."

Dawn headed upstairs and I looked around me, not even sure where to start. Eventually I wandered into what I assumed was the toy and knick-knack section. I was beginning to lose hope that I would find something to get for Stella when I spotted something from the corner of my eyes caught my attention. I turned my head to get a closer look at it. Picking up the box, I read the description on the back of it and a smile slowly formed on my face.

"This is perfect," I whispered, skipping off to find Dawn to show her my find, still looking at everything around me as I passed. I found the staircase and headed up the stairs. When I wound up on the second floor, I gaped at all the clutter of books around me. While the ground floor contained lots of knick-knacks and other whimsical objects, the second floor contained possibly every book in existence. Books were stacked on shelves, chairs, desktops and there were even stacks on the floor.

I wandered through the maze of books and dark shelves until I finally found Dawn in a worn out, over stuffed chair towards the back of the store. It was a little reading nook stowed away in a cave of books that anyone would probably miss unless they were looking for it.

"Hey," Dawn said when she saw me, putting down her book, "Did you find something interesting downstairs?" I showed her what I picked up downstairs and she whistled, "Mhm, I didn't know that that was in the store. Stella will love it."

"I think so too," I said, looking around the room at all the books instead of focusing on my sister, "Who owns this place and why does he keep it like this?"

Dawn chuckled, "His name is Dewey. He's an eccentric old guy with bushy white hair, and this," she gestures to the chaos around us, "is his filing system."

"How do people find anything in here?"

"Everything is arranged by subject, then by author. Really, it's like a normal library or book store, just with more books than usual."

"Did you find the books that you wanted?"

"Yeah, Dewey was nice enough to set them aside for me until I came back to get them."

"That was nice of him, where is this Dewey anyway?"

"Right behind you," came an unfamiliar male voice. I whirled around and came face to face with sparkling blue eyes, and white hair. "You must be new, I'm Dewey, welcome to my shop," he said, making a big gesture with his hands. He stopped at studied me for a minute, "Oh hey, look at that, we have the same hair color. We must be related." Dewey patted the white tufts of hair sticking up on his head. I took a minute to analyze the older man in front of me. He was a few inches shorter than myself and had a round body. He was wearing an old jacket with patches on the elbows and a worn pair of tan pants with patches on the knees. The very air about him seemed to scream 'eccentric bookworm.'

"Dewey," Dawn tisked, "This is why you have such a hard time bringing in new customers, you keep scaring them."

"Awe shucks," Dewey said, his face turning red, "Sorry about that Dawn, anyhoo, who's your friend here?"

"This is my youngest sister Serena; we both came to get presents for Stella's birthday next week."

"Ah, another sister," Dewey cried, grabbing my hand and shaking it up and down, "It's so nice to meet you, did you find something downstairs that struck your fancy?" I showed him the box in my hand. "Ah, yes, Stella will most definitely love this," he said, examining it, "I almost forgot I had some of those in the store… As matter of fact, I'm not exactly sure what all is down there."

Dawn sighed, "Dewey, we must discuss your managerial skills at some point. While your organization practices are… interesting, you need to keep better track of what you have in the store."

"Eh," Dewey just shrugged, "If I keep track of what's down there then that means I'll have to replace things if they run out. And besides, I like my little store of oddities just the way it is."

My sister just rolled her eyes and picked up a stack of books from the floor. "Right, you have everything you need?" She asked me.

"Yeah, I just got this thing," I replied, waving the object in my hand.

"Okay, Dewey, we're ready to check out now."

"Awe," the older man replied, "You're leaving already?"

"I have to go to work and Serena has homework to do, we can't stay here all day."

Dewey sighed, "Alright, alright, come on downstairs, and we'll get you sorted out. Ah, wait, I have a present for Stella back here some where." Dewey rustled through some books and pulled out a dusty old tome. "Here it is, this one is on me, make sure she gets it on her birthday."

Dawn took the book and opened the cover, chuckling at what she saw. "Thanks Dewey, I'll make sure she get's it," she smiled, placing it in her bag, "now let's get going already, places to go, things to see and all that."

"What was the book that Dewey gave you?" I asked as we left the story after checking out.

"Oh, it's just an inside joke between Stella, Dewey and I. When we first wandered into his shop years ago when our adoptive parents were shopping nearby, we introduced ourselves to Dewey. He was so enamored with our names that every year on our birthdays he would give us something relating to space or the stars."

"So what was the book?" I asked again.

"A really old copy of Copernicus's _De revolutionibus orbium coelestium. _He was the first person to propose that the Earth revolved around the sun, and mapped many of planets and stars," Dawn replied, pulling the book out of her bag and handing it to me. I flipped through it, utterly confused at the writing, since it was in a different language. "You should prepare yourself too."

"Why?"

"I saw Dewey's eyes light up when he heard your name too. He'll probably dig out everything he has on the moon in his collection."

"Hey, wait!" I heard Dewey call from behind us. I turned around and saw him running out of his shop, a book in his hand.

"Dewey?" I said, looking at the man curiously.

He just smiled and handed me the book in his hand. "I thought this would suit you well. Bye Dawn, bye Serena, I'll see you two later," and he was gone, back in his store.

I looked at the book in my hand and read the title. "Moon myths and More?" I asked, looking over at my sister.

Dawn just laughed. "I knew it," she said, placing her bag in the back seat of the jeep.

"Why'd he give me this?" I demanded. _He couldn't know about that could he?_

"Your name silly, like I told you a minute ago. Serena is a derivative of Selene, the goddess of the moon, so naturally he would give you a book on the myths of the moon," Dawn explained like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Internally I sighed that the book wasn't about anything other than my name, but part of what she said flittered back through my mind and I paused. "I thought the Moon goddess's name was Serenity?"

Dawn looked puzzled for a minute, "Serenity? No, I've never heard that one before. I've heard Hecate, Artemis, Diana, Luna and Selene, but never Serenity. Where did you hear that before?"

"Oh, just something I read before, must've been a mistranslation," I laughed, trying to wave off the subject. I really didn't want the conversation to continue in the direction it was going.

It looked for a minute like my sister was going to say something else but an alarm went off on her phone. Taking out her phone, Dawn screeched when she saw the time. "Oh my gosh, I've got to get you home and get to work before I'm late."

"I can drive you to the theater," I offered, "Then I can drive myself home. It would keep you from having to come back to the city."

Dawn looked apprehensive, "Are you sure you'll be able to find your way back home? You haven't been driving all that long to know the roads very well, and traffic is always a horrendous mess."

"I've got GPS, I'll be fine," I replied.

Dawn seemed to think for a minute before nodding and tossing me the keys. "Alright, get in and let's go, just remember I wouldn't be doing this if I wasn't in a hurry," she told me seriously before she climbed in the passenger seat.

I rolled my eyes a bit at that. "Such a worry wart," I muttered, climbing into the jeep.

* * *

"Big sis! Little sis!" Stella cried as she saw us waiting for her at the airport. She dropped her bags and put an arm around each of us, squeezing tight. "I've missed you guys sooo much. It's kind of upsetting that I'm only going to be back for a few days before heading to France."

"The life of a traveling musician," Dawn laughed, picking up one of Stella's bags, "At least you'll be staying at your flat instead of in hotel rooms; it's homier… And the airline didn't lose your luggage this time."

"You have a flat in Paris?" I asked Stella, grabbing one of her other bags.

"Yeah, I think one of TJ's friends… or relatives, something like that, is staying there right now. TJ said she wanted a roommate since she didn't want to live alone in a new city, especially one of the largest in the world. Since both he and Hailey vouched for her, I said it was okay, I had a spare bedroom anyway," Stella said thoughtfully, "I wish I could remember what her name is or how she knows TJ, but it just slipped my mind."

"And you're okay with a complete stranger staying in your flat?" I asked, incredulous.

Stella looked at me strangely for a minute. "You'll learn this eventually," she started, "but when you find your very best friends, you'll find that you can trust them in every aspect of your life. I don't know what kind of friends you have back in Japan, but if you didn't know that, then they mustn't have been very good friends."

My eyes teared up and I looked towards the ground. "I thought they were those kind of friends," I whispered, "but I was wrong. I only had, well, have one friend from Japan like that."

"One friend like that is better than many fair weather friends," Stella said, bumping my shoulder with affection, "and besides, aren't sisters like, the best type of friends."

"Why's that?"

"Just something that Dawn told me. Sisters don't always have to like each other, but they always love each other," my frosty haired sister said matter-of-factly, "Dawn gets on my nerves sometimes that I just want to strangle her sometimes-" "_I heard that"_ Dawn said in front of us, "- but I'll always love her, and she'll always love me even when I drive her crazy. The same goes for you; we'll always love you, no matter what, even when your crazy teenage angst rears its head again."

I couldn't decide whether to cry or feel offended with that last remark so I merely smiled. "Thanks," I replied, "I'll always love you guys to, even when you get overbearing and all adult like." I playfully nudged her shoulder, pushing her a little off kilter before taking off back towards the Jeep.

"Hey!" I heard Stella cry out behind me as she dashed up next to me.

"Bunch of children," I heard Dawn mutter as we passed her to get to the car first. Stella and I started pulling on the door handles when we reached the jeep, but they wouldn't open. "I have the keys," my oldest sister said as she walked up to us, rattling the keys in her hand.

"So Stella, your birthday is tomorrow," Dawn started once we got everything stowed away and headed down the road, "Christa and Anna are coming over for the party, along with Flora and Fauna. Are Hailey and TJ going to come?"

"TJ's back in England with his family," Stella told her, "Hailey's flying in tomorrow morning just for my birthday before she heads back. She's informed me that we're going to the salon to get a facial and my nails done." My middle sister rolled her eyes at that, "She spends far too much time at the salon if you ask me."

"So how did she talk you into going?" Dawn asked, "It's not exactly your most favorite thing in the world to do."

"I like getting a manicure as much as the next woman, but I can't really keep my fingernails looking nice playing musical instruments all the time."

"This is true," Dawn said, looking at her short nails wistfully, "I love having my nails done, but if I'm painting, I can't keep them looking nice. I always get paint stuck under them which is unpleasant."

As I listened to my older sisters' conversation from the back seat, I looked at my own nails, all bitten and roughed up. My old… friends I guess, made fun of me and scolded me for not taking care of them like a proper princess should. I snorted a little, thinking of when I would have had time to do them with everything that I had going on back there.

"Everything okay back there?" Dawn asked, looking at me through the review mirror.

"Yeah, just thinking," I said, "Do you think Essie will like Jacey?" I looked at the small dog sleeping in her carrier on the backseat with me.

"Jacey's the puppy you got right?" Stella questioned. At my confirming nod, she continued on, "Essie's pretty friendly, and laid back. Plus we're only gonna be here for a few days. If Essie doesn't like her, she'll just stay in my room or outside. Much like a cat, she has a mind of her own."

"Sasha probably rubbed off on her, though she tends to act like a dog occasionally. They spend way too much time together when they were little and we were both in school," Dawn pondered.

"How does Luna like Jacey? She seems more like a proper cat," Stella directed back at me.

I chuckled, "Luna tolerates her presence and absolutely loathes when I leave her alone with Jacey because apparently Jacey likes to play with her and snuggle."

"Oh dear," Stella murmured, stifling a yawn. "Why are my flight in always so late at night?" She moaned. "It's a good thing tomorrow is Saturday, I can sleep in a bit before Hailey so rudely wakes me up and drags me out on my birthday."

"Well it is relatively late; it'll be almost midnight by the time we get home, but still, you usually stay up later than this," Dawn commented.

Stella snorted, "It's jetlag. I don't care if people say you only get it by flying west to east or whatever, I get it as soon as I set foot in the airport, it's horrible. And it's not like I sleep on planes anyway, so uncomfortable."

I tried to stay awake and listen to the conversation, but I had a long day at school so my eyes start to droop and I slipped back into my dreams.

_Dreamscape_

_ I was about the same age as before in the last dream, so maybe 9 or 10. I was creeping up behind this small reddish figure dozing in the garden in a patch of sunlight. When I was almost upon the small figure, an ear twitch back and the reddish blur darted up and away from me. I gave chase around the garden, climbing up trees and crawling under bushes trying to catch the blur, giggling the entire way._

_ I had almost caught up with the blur in front of me when I heard an angry voice call across the garden. "Serenity!" My mother's voice called out, "Serenity where are you?!" I groaned and tried to bury myself further into the bush I was hiding in, willing my mother to disappear back to whatever cauldron she came from. "Serenity!"_

_ Finally I got tired of her yelling and I stuck my head out. "Yes?"_

_ "You get out of that shrub right now, this is not how a princess behaves!" She yelled, pointing to a spot in front of her feet indicating where I'm supposed to go. I sighed and slowly crawled out of my hiding spot, grinning inwardly when I saw her face practically turn purple in anger. "Serenity, what have you done to your new dress?!"_

_ "My name is Selena mother," I bit back at her, "and if you've forgotten, I hate dresses, I can't run around and play in them very well."_

_ Her eyes crackled with a sick mixture of anger and magic as she grabbed my arm and yanked on it hard enough to surely leave a bruise later. "For the last time, your name is Serenity, like all crown princesses of the moon before you, and you will act like one. Now go change your clothes, you're having dinner with the squires of the planets tonight."_

_ "Awe mother!" I whined, "I wanted to spend time with Anna tonight. This is the last night she's here before she goes back to her home for knight training. She won't be back here for another 6 months. She's my best friend!"_

_ "You will do as I say," she yelled at me, "all the other knights and squires are leaving tomorrow as well. I was hoping that you would get to know the squires, the younger princesses, better because they are going to be your good friends one day."_

_ "I don't think so," I contradicted, "They're not very nice, so stuck up and condescending."_

_ The queen took a deep ragged breath, "You will do your duty as a princess; are we understood?"_

_ "Understood," I squeaked out as she squeezed my arm tighter._

_ She realized my arm with a smile. "Good," mother said, "Now run along and put on a new dress."_

_ I sighed and headed towards my room, rubbing my arm to relieve the ache. On my way back to my room, I saw my absolutely favorite person in all the worlds. "'Rora!" I yelled, running up to her._

_ She turned around and smiled at me, holding out her arms for me to jump in them. "How are you going Selena?"_

_ "Selena…"_

_ Selena…_

"Serena," Dawn whispered, shaking me gently. "Wake-up, we're home."

"Hmm," I murmured, still half asleep. I sat up straight, rubbing my eyes to fully wake up, the strange dream slipping away from my mind like breath in the wind. I couldn't seem to wake up fully, my tired mind pulling me back into my dreams.

"No, no, no," Dawn said as I slumped over, trying to go back to sleep. My oldest sister pulled me out of the car and slung one of my arms over her shoulders. I leaned most of my body weight on my sister, too tired to walk straight.

I was barely aware of my sister basically carrying me upstairs and settling me on my bed. "C'mon Serena," Dawn's voice swam in my consciousness, "You've got to help me out here. You're too big for me to change your clothes by myself like I used to." I grunted in response and lifted my arms weakly. I felt my tee shirt slip off and my pajama top was pulled on me. I wriggled my jeans as far down on my hips as I could and Dawn pulled them the rest of the way off, replacing them with my shorts.

I sighed in content as I felt myself being tucked into bed and a soft kiss placed on my head. "Good night Serena," was what was said to me, but all I heard was a familiar voice whispering in my mind _Good night Selena…_

* * *

"Alright, alright, enough with the cake and distractions, give me presents," Stella ordered, pouting in her seat, looking slightly ridiculous with her party hat on and streamers caught in her frost colored hair.

I grinned over at Anna who rolled her eyes and we both started snickering quietly. Dawn, Christa and Hailey placed small packages in front of Stella, each with their own creative flair. Anna, Dr. Fauna and Flora dropped cards

on the stack and I quietly placed a gift bag behind the packages. Even though Dawn said that Stella would love it, I still felt a little hesitant about the present.

"Dewey told me to give this to you," Dawn said, handing the book that the odd storeowner gave her to her.

Stella took the book from Dawn's hands and groaned when she saw the title. "He's such a bookworm… and a practical joker, it's weird," she sighed placing the book down, "Another one to go in the pile. I mean, they're interesting to read, but still, this is a little ridiculous. How does he find these books?"

"Like you said, bookworm," Dawn replied, grinning.

Stella started opening her other presents, receiving several books from Dawn, salon quality hair gel and shampoo from Christa and gift certificates from Anna, Flora and Fauna. I watched as she opened Hailey's present and gasped when she pulled out an absolutely gorgeous leather jacket. "Wow Hailey," Stella breathed, "You've really outdone yourself this time." She pulled it on and it fit like a glove.

"Did you design that?" I asked Hailey while Stella cooed in her new jacket.

"Yes dear, I've always had a flair for fashion, so I went to school majoring in fashion merchandizing and design. My family's connections helped me out a lot too so I can do what I love," Hailey sighed, "And I get to live and work in England where someday I'll become Mrs. Hailey Huntington."

I looked back over at Stella when Hailey's eyes glazed over in a wistful expression that I've seen on many girls when thinking about their future weddings. I turned my attention back to Stella as she placed the jacket back in its box and picked up my present. She slowly opened the bag and took the tissue paper out. Pulling the box out of the bottom of the bag, Stella looked at it curiously, turning it in her hands to read the description on the side.

"It's a star projector," I blurted out, drawing Stella's eyes to me, "I found it in Dewey's store. It projects images of constellations and the night sky on the walls and ceiling."

Stella blinked at me and squealed, running over to hug me. "It's perfect!" She squealed, crushing me in a hug, "This is just what I need in my flat in Paris to sit on my bedside table."

I sighed in relief that she like the present, but also that she released me so that I could breathe again. "I'm glad you like it," I wheezed out, still trying to catch my breath.

The party continued on for another few hours, all of us just sitting around talking, playing games and having fun. Eventually everyone but Hailey left. The caramel haired blonde was staying at the house since she only flew in for a few days. She was staying downstairs with Stella though, not in the guest room so I still had my side of the upstairs to myself.

I started to get dressed for bed when I felt a pain on my upper arm and winced. I took my shirt off and looked at my arm. I gasped when I saw a bruise in the shape of a hand forming on my upper arm. "Serena what happened," Luna said when she spotted the bruise.

I wracked my brain, thinking of what could've happened, then I remembered my dream from the night before. I couldn't remember the details, but I remembered feeling intense pain in my arm. "I think," I started, "This happened in a dream."

"A dream?" Luna asked, "How is that possible."

"I don't know. I had a dream last night that I don't remember much about, but I remember feeling a pain in my arm and frightening pair of ice blue eyes. Next thing I know, this bruise has formed on my arm."

Luna looked thoughtful, "How could a dream do this to you?"

"I'm not sure, but I know that it felt so real, even if I can't remember it to well. It felt like I had been through it before."

"Maybe it was a memory, memories have been known to cause pain, but not to this extent."

I touched the bruise and flinched a little. "I think it looks worse than it actually is," I said, "I'll just put a bandage on it to keep people from noticing it. It would be awful hard to explain if anyone saw it."

"Are you sure you're alright?" Luna asked.

I sighed, "No… Actually I'm kind of frightened to go to sleep, but I can't stay awake forever. And I'm not going to run away from dreams, or memories, whatever they are. Usagi ran away all the time, and I'm not Usagi anymore."

"I'm proud of you Serena," Luna said as I crawled into bed.

"Thanks Luna," I murmured as I drifted off to sleep.

* * *

**A/N: Review please**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: So, wow, long chapter, I didn't realize it was going to be that long when I started this. Good news guys! The next chapter should be the last one for Part 1. Part 2 is told from Mina and Michiru's POV's, so we won't be getting back to Serena for a while. Anyway, I'm going to have to go back through some of the earlier chapters to do some editing to make sure that all of the information is correct. I changed things alot as the story progress, so I'll have to make things more current I guess, make sure everything flows and such.**

**I've had some major breakthroughs with this story, and I've been planning Part 3 out. I have the first few chapters of Part 2 written, so I'll be sure to start working on Chapter 11 right away. I have a road trip next week which will help. It'll be another long one though, like this one. A lot of stuff has to happen, but I don't want to split it up since it happens pretty much around the same time.**

**Anyway, review please**

* * *

**Chapter 10**

"Serena wake up," Luna whispered into my ear, "You're going to school early today remember? Self-defense lessons with Sofya and Brigitte, any of this ring a bell?"

"No…" I whined, burrowing further into my pillow. It was the week after Stella's birthday part. She and Hailey left a few days after the party, taking their craziness with them so that I was finally able to sleep. I hadn't realized that their crazy behavior around each other only got worse the longer they were together. They get into arguments, yell and pull pranks on each other and just when I think they're going to come to blows, they're laughing and hugging each other.

_Flashback_

_ I quirked my eyebrow as Stella and Hailey began arguing over the consistency of mashed potatoes and which brand of mac and cheese was better. I heard Dawn chuckling from the couch and looked over to her. She was looking at the two in the kitchen as well and laughing at their antics._

_ "How did they even become friends?" I asked her, referring to the bickering pair._

_ Dawn laughed, "Well that's a little complicated. Hailey grew up and went to school in England, but she came to New York to study fashion. She and Stella ended up as roommates in the dorms their freshman year. In the beginning, they pretty much just fought the whole time; since they're so different, their personalities just clashed, I mean, they have led pretty different lives."_

_ "What do you mean?"_

_ "Hailey basically grew up like a princess," Dawn replied, "Loving, loaded parents, butlers, maids, the whole works. She's also the oldest amongst her siblings and cousins, so she's grown up with the responsibility of being the oldest while Stella has…"_

_ "Grown up as the middle child?" I added helpfully._

_ "Right, anyway, I thought for sure their fighting would escalate worse and that they would come to physical violence, but all of a sudden, they just started laughing together. They became really good friends after that. They didn't stop fighting, because they were still the same people, they didn't change at all, but it was like they understood each other, what motivated the other. If you ask me, those are the best kind of friendships."_

_ I had looked back over towards the two in the kitchen who were now arguing over yellow or white corn but glanced back to Dawn when I heard the last part of the sentence. "Why's that?" I asked her, wanting to know what was so special about Hailey and Stella's friendship._

_ Dawn smiled, "Well, how did your friendships at school develop? With Anna, Sofya or Brigitte? Or even your friend Mina?"_

_ "Well…" My face scrunched up as I thought, "We just started talking, found out we liked a lot of the same things, stuff like that."_

_ "So they were formed by mutual interests and personalities that weren't offensive," Dawn clarified. When I nodded, she continued with her explanation, "Stella and Hailey have practically nothing in common, absolutely nothing. Stella's a dog person, Hailey's a cat person. Hailey likes really girly things like fashion and spa days, while Stella prefers to spend her free time, when she's not playing music, gardening or watching soccer. Their friendship was built on a deep understanding of each other, which then progressed into reluctantly spending time together. Stella tolerates spa days with Hailey because every time she does, Hailey agrees to do some type of outdoor activity."_

_ "Didn't they just go to the spa for facials?" I asked, "What did she agree to go to?"_

_ "I think she agreed to a polo match, but I could be wrong, that might have been the last time," my oldest sister laughed, "I can't really keep up with how they function. All I know is that Hailey is Stella's best friend. They're odd and a little crazy when they're together, but it's amusing in a way."_

_ "Don't even bring creamed corn into this discussion!" Stella yelled, "Everyone knows regular corn is better!"_

_ "Not if you're eating cornbread or if you're mixing the corn and the mashed potatoes together. Creamed corn is better for smoothing out the potatoes," Hailey returned._

_ "I thought we'd already settled this," Stella replied, exasperated, "Mashed potatoes with some lumps are way better, brings character to the mashed potatoes."_

_ "They're mashed potatoes! Why do they need character?!_

_ I just looked back over to Dawn and she just shook her head. "Be prepared not to get much sleep," she said to me, before returning to her book._

_End Flashback_

"Serena…" Luna started up again, "You told me last night to make sure that you got up since you didn't want to bother Dawn, now get up!"

I sighed, pushing myself up off the bed and into the bathroom. "I'm up, I'm up," I grumbled all the way into the shower. Quickly I took a shower and got ready for school, tying my hair up in a loose ponytail instead of letting it hang free like I normally do.

I went downstairs and made a few pieces of toast and heated a piece of sausage in the microwave. I put the sausage in between my pieces of toast and stuck it in my mouth. Heading out the door, I muffled a goodbye to Luna around my make shift sandwich, and drove to school.

Brigitte and Sofya were waiting for me when I pulled into the parking lot. I glared at the bright and chipper brunette and looked worriedly as the blunette wavered, looking as if she were asleep on her feet. "What's up with Sofya?" I asked Brigitte as she tugged the other girl towards the gym.

"She's not a morning person," Brigitte answered, "She sits in her morning classes like a zombie until about 10:00 when she starts to wake up."

"Does she not like coffee?" I asked. While I don't particularly care for the stuff, I'm not going to turn it down if I have to get up early and have a hard morning ahead of me.

Brigitte blanched, "Oh she loves it, none of us are willing to give it to her though. She's evil when she's caffeinated, pure evil." The brunette shivered, "Just remembering the last time someone gave her a soda still gives me the shakes."

"Was it that bad?"

"Just imagine the craziest person you know," Brigitte started, "Then multiple it by 10 and you might come close to what she's like."

I grimaced, "Alright then, on to self-defense, who's teaching this anyway?"

"The CSO Emma Swan, she's really nice. When she learned that not many of the girls at school knew any self-defense techniques, she offered to do these free lessons," Brigitte said.

I hummed as we entered the gym and I spotted the blond security officer, "Do you think she and Ms. Blanchard are related?"

"I don't know, why do you ask?"

I shrugged, "I don't know, I see them together a lot and they look really similar. I asked Ms. Blanchard but she just said they were best friends."

"And you don't buy it?" Brigitte asked as she directed Sofya towards the back of the back of the group.

"Not in the least."

"All right guys," Officer Swan clapped, "Line up, for the next hour I'm going to show you basic moves to defend yourselves against attackers. Be prepared to work your muscles because that's what we're going to do."

I whimpered a little a cast a glare in Brigitte's direction. "I have fencing this afternoon," I hissed at her as we started stretching to warm up.

"You'll be fine by then," the brunette returned.

I glanced in Sofya's direction and saw that she was slumped over on the floor asleep. I tried to get her to stand up, but she was just dead weight in my arms so I had no choice than to leave her on the floor. "And she was doing so well too," Brigitte murmured, "Got all the way here and everything."

I rolled my eyes in response and continued copying the motions of Officer Swan, as well as ignoring my irritating brunette friend.

* * *

"I'm going to kill Brigitte the next time I see her," I muttered as I made my way painfully to fencing practice. My muscles were aching from the self-defense lessons earlier that day, and I knew I was going to have some difficulty during the lesson. Dr. Isles was having us work on footwork and our lunges.

"Hey Serena," Dr. Isles greeted me when I walked into the practice room, "Looks like it's just going to be us today. Most of the others came up to me and told me that they weren't going to be here today due to other work or conflicts."

I groaned, "Why didn't I think of that?"

Her hazel eyes flicked over me in concern, "It looks like you are favoring your deltoid and trapezius muscles, as well as your gluteus maximus." I blinked in confusion and she clarified, "Your shoulder, back and butt muscles."

"Oh right," I laughed lightly, "Self-defense lessons this morning with Officer Swan. I got tossed around a bit since I'm so small."

"Mhm," she hummed, "That will do it. You know I can help you with that too if you would like; since my wife is a police officer, she wanted me to make sure that I was able to defend myself, also helps that I am well versed in the art of taekwondo."

"No that's okay Dr. Isles," I hurriedly said, "Really, it's fine, you're already doing so much by teaching me fencing and everything."

The petite blonde woman smiled, "It's my pleasure Serena. Teaching young people fills the passions previously occupied by my work as a medical examiner."

"That's right, you used to work with your wife didn't you?"

"Yes, I resigned the post though when I had our first child. I wanted to have steadier hours to be with her when she was growing up and other children we would have. Now, why don't we spar for a while to see how well you implement the footwork you've been practicing?"

"Sure," I replied with as much enthusiasm as I could muster. We put on the protective equipment and began sparing.

"Remember," Dr. Isles said to me through the mask, " While fencing is considered a sport by many, it is also an art form, a dance between the competitors. It should be beautiful as well as effective, no unnecessary movements."

We practice, well, I practice, Dr. Isles taught, for half an hour before she called a halt. "If fencing is supposed to be beautiful," I asked, taking off the protective mask, "Does that mean that professional sword work in old times was also beautiful."

"Fencing and swordsmanship are two different things Serena," Dr. Isles answered, "Fencing is an art form, like I said, used as duels between noblemen or as a way to entertain people. Swordsmanship was more useful in the fields of battle. People would train in the art of swordsmanship, learn the techniques and rules, but it would all disappear in the heat of battle."

"Interesting, so fencing is really just a way to show off?" I asked.

"That's just what I've been telling her," a husky voice said from the doorway into the practice room. I turned towards the voice and saw a tall, lanky woman leaning against the door jam, her dark brown hair falling in wild curls around her head.

"Jane," Dr. Isles murmured in surprise, moving towards the brunette, "What are you doing here?"

"I just came to pick up my wife to have some alone time while the children are away," I heard the woman, identified as Jane, Detective Rizzoli, Dr. Isles's wife, reply.

"That sounds wonderful," Dr. Isles returned.

I interrupted them before anything I didn't want to see could happen. "Dr. Isles, I'm going to put the gear back in the closet and head home."

Dr. Isles turned towards me, "Thank you Serena. Oh Jane, this is Serena Parker, she's going to be applying for my AP Biology course next semester." The blonde introduced me to her darker haired companion.

"It's nice to meet you Serena," Detective Rizzoli extended her hand to me, "I'm sure you'll make it into the class."

"I'm sure she will as well," Dr. Isles replied, "Mary Margaret has only had wonderful things to say about her."

I blushed a deep red straight to my silver roots, and muttered a good bye to the two adults and rushed towards my car. When I pulled in front of the house, I noticed that Dawn's car was gone from inside the garage. I walked into the house and found a note on the kitchen counter from Dawn staying that she was going out for a late lunch then to work and wouldn't be there when I got home.

Jacey toddled up to me when I walked into the living room and sat on my feet before I could head upstairs. I bent down and cooed to the puppy and took her out to make sure that she went before I took her back up to my room. Luna wasn't in my room when I came in with Jacey, so I assumed she was out playing with Sasha somewhere.

I pulled up my email when I sat down at my desk in front of my computer. I noticed new emails from both Michiru and Mina so I opened Mina's first, wondering what she was doing with her love life at the moment.

_ Moon Bunny,_

_ I'm not sure where to start. I told you that I was completely besotted with this senior and school, and now I can safely tell you that I am completely in love. Hopeless in love would be better actually. I took your advice and started getting to know her, speaking to her was a trying thing though because I kept getting tongue tied around her. The more I got to know her though the harder I fell. I don't know what to do. I don't know if she likes me like that, or even likes girls to begin with. What do I do?_

_ Help me Moon Bunny…_

_ Goddess of Love_

I sighed and leaned back in my seat, trying to figure out what to do about my blonde friend. I clicked reply and typed up a short response.

_Goddess of Love_

_ Just tell her! Her reaction can't be any worse that what you're imagining._

_ Love,_

_ Moon Bunny_

I sent the email off to get it out of the way, hoping that maybe the next time Mina emails me that she'll have good news or something else to talk about. I moved onto Michiru's email, which caused a strange fluttering sensation to move in my stomach. I shook off the feeling and opened the message.

_Dear Usagi,_

_ The last time I talked to you, I told you I was staying with one of my brother's friends while working, since I didn't want to live alone. Well, she came back a few days ago, and she's absolutely psychotic, she must be, she's absolutely crazy. Don't get me wrong, she's really nice, and I like her a lot, actually I've admired her for years, but she's wacko. I'm not sure how living together is going to work out. I'm not used to living with someone this crazy, considering, outside of my family, I've only lived with… well…_

_ Work has been going good, though living in France is a completely different experience than just traveling through it. It's a good different though; when I don't have to work, I can just walk to a local bistro and watch people. I was never able to do that before since she was always with me, and she hated to be idle, always wanting to go for a drive instead._

_ I'm glad we are talking now Usagi. I always felt that we would have made good friends, but with the burdens of being an Outer senshi, I was unable to really spend any time with you. Now it appears, we are both free from our burdens and we can be two people who knew each other a little bit, who want to know each other better, be actual friends instead of just acquaintances. _

_ Michiru_

I smiled, my heart warming a little at the last part of the email and giggling at the first part. I quickly typed up a reply to send to Michiru.

_Dear Michiru,_

_ I would be honored to call you my friend, and as my friend I insist you address me as Moon Bunny in any email. Mina and I decided to come up with code names and stuff at first to trick people, but then they just stuck._

_ I'm glad work is going good, but I'm not sure how to respond that your roommate is crazy. How exactly is she crazy, what did she do to deserve such a title? I didn't know you had a brother, older brother I'm guessing._

_ Anyway, I'm glad you're enjoying the atmosphere of France, and enjoying living there. It's always important to love where you live._

_ Moon Bunny_

I closed my computer and remembered that I had unfinished business to attend to before I got started on my homework. I took out my cell phone and pulled up Brigitte's contact information. Tapping the send button, I waited for the older brunette to pick up the phone.

_"Howdy Serena!" _Brigitte answered. I could hear bustling and rattling in the background.

"Are you at work?" I asked. The brunette worked as a barista at a coffee house in her free time to save money for college or things that she needed. Her parents pay for an apartment for her since she came up for school, but she's determined to pay for her own food.

_"Yeah but I'm on break, what's up?"_

"Just thought I would tell you that I was still sore for fencing practice this afternoon."

_Brigitte gave out a nervous laugh, "Hehe, um, I thought you would be fine by then."_

"After the way you just tossed me around this morning?" I yelled, irked at the taller brunette.

_"You're just so tiny Serena, and we were paired up, what was I supposed to do? Let you attack me?"_

"You could've been a little gentler," I grumbled.

_"Duly noted, I'll keep that in mind for next time."_

"Next time?" I cried.

I heard someone speaking to Brigitte on the other end. "_That was my boss Serena, I have to go, I'll see you at school tomorrow."_

Before I could say anything else I heard a dial tone signaling that Brigitte was gone. "Grrrr," I growled, tossing my phone on my bed. Sitting back down at my desk, I pulled at my homework and quickly completed what needed to be done for class tomorrow.

I decided to head downstairs and fix dinner before reviewing assignments that are due later this week. Jacey followed me down to the living room and I saw Luna and Sasha stretched out on the couch with the TV on. "When did you learn how to use the remote?" I asked Luna.

"I haven't," Luna replied, "Sasha does though, she turned on the TV."

I looked at the golden cat appraisingly and she just meowed and rolled her head over to look at me upside down. "Strange cat," I murmured, heading into the kitchen to make some dinner. I pulled out some chicken that Dawn had grilled and frozen for me to have when I didn't feel like cooking, and started heating it back up on the stove.

I also pulled out pet food for the furry ones and set them on the floor in their bowls. "Luna, Sasha, Jacey, dinner," I called them before turning back to my own food in the skillet.

I heard a scampering of feet rustling towards the room and Sasha and Jacey immediately went to their food bowls. Luna gracefully followed them and looked at her food on the ground disdainfully. "Do I have to eat on the ground?" She asked me.

"You have to set a good example for Jacey," I told her.

"Dawn never makes me eat on the ground."

"That's because she would put out food for you before I fed Jacey."

"Why can't you just do that?"

I glared at her, "Luna, you're a cat, you can eat on the ground every once and a while."

She sighed and flicked her tail at me, "If I must."

I giggled at the antics of my guardian and finished getting my dinner ready. I ate quietly with animals, telling Luna about my day and everything that happened. Once I finished and cleaned up the plates that I used, I headed back upstairs and started working on a few papers and projects due in a few weeks. I started running out of steam a few hours later so I decided to call it a night and get ready for bed.

As soon as my head hit the pillow, I drifted off to sleep.

_Dreamscape_

_ I appeared to be a bit older than the last few dreams, maybe 12 or 13 by the looks of it. I was hiding behind a tree spying on a sword fighting class taking place in the palace arena._

_ "Pst, Selena," I heard from my left. Turn towards the I spotted my best friend Anna concealed underneath a large bush, "Get down here and don't get spotted or you'll give me away."_

_ Confused, I squatted down and crawled to the bush as best as I could wearing the dress that my mother forced me in that morning. "Why aren't you in class Anna?" I hissed at her, "You're old enough to start sword training to become a knight."_

_ "Ugh," she groaned, "Don't get me started on that. I'm not very good at it. I just end up whacking myself with the practice swords. Coming here the past few years and being educated is fine, but starting weapons practice, I'll probably end up killing myself, and besides, you're one to talk, you're supposed to be in your magic class."_

_ "I wish I could be in weapons training," I sighed, "But mother doesn't approve of weapons classes; she had me learning strictly magic, and nothing else. It's boring."_

_ "Why don't you just talk to her?"_

_ I snorted, "She doesn't listen; she has this idea in her head of who I'm supposed to be and I don't exactly meet any of those expectations. I mean, she calls me Serenity all the time, completely ignoring my real name as if it wasn't my name."_

_ "That's true, your mom is a little on the crazy controlling side. What does she have against weapons classes."_

_ "Says they aren't elegant, and she wants me to be spending more time with the squires and less time with you."_

_ "What? What does she have against me?"_

_ "Alphabetically or chronologically?"_

_ "Shut-up," Anna replied, hitting me on the arm. I winced and rubbed where she hit me. She started babbling on and on about something or other, but I wasn't really listening to what she was saying._

_ I had lost focus. I was too busy watching the class-taking place in field not to far from where we were crouched. Anna noticed I wasn't paying attention and followed my gaze. "You know you're going to have to go to class at some point?" I asked her._

_ "I know," she sighed, "I could probably manage in any other weapons class, so I don't even know why they assigned me to the sword."_

_ "You're better with staves really, and maybe throwing knives. You're also pretty handy with magic."_

_ "Battle magic when combined with weapons training is pretty handy."_

_ We both feel silent again just watching when suddenly a hand shot down through the bush and grabbed my arm. Another one came down and grabbed Anna, jerking us out of our hiding place. Whirling around, I came face to face with my mother, her lavender eyes seething with anger. I glanced over to Anna, relieved that the hand that grabbed her wasn't my mother's other hand, but Luna's._

_ I caught Luna's eye and sent her a look telling her to get Anna out of here before mother turned her ire toward her. A harsh shake of my shoulders brought my attention back to the angry woman in front of me. "Why aren't you in class?" She asked, shaking me. _

_ I squirmed, trying to get away. "Mo-mother, you're hurting me," I stuttered, pulling back._

_ "Then answer my question."_

_ "I don't want to go to magic or etiquette classes, I want to go through weapons training," I told her finally._

_ "You will do as I tell you!"_

_ "Why, why can't I do what I want for once?"_

_ Something dark glinted in her eyes and I saw her hand descend quickly toward my face…_

_ End dreamscape_

"Aah," I cried, sitting up. I could feel my face stinging from the force of the slap and my shoulders were sore. They would surely be bruised in the morning.

"Serena you're bleeding," Luna said, pointing to my cheek.

I touched my cheek gently and felt a wet stickiness on my fingers where it stung the most. I quickly took my hand away and got up to go to the bathroom to get a better look. I gasped when I flipped the light on and saw a three-inch gash on my cheek.

"What happened?" Luna asked, "Was it another dream?"

"Yeah," I answered her, "I remember a bit more this time, not much though. I was talking to someone, I'm not sure who, and watching a…" I paused to think for a moment before shaking my head, "Some type of class or something and then I was grabbed by Queen Serenity. She shook me pretty hard, then she slapped me. I guess the one of her rings or something caught my cheek."

Luna shook her head, "I don't understand, that doesn't sound anything like the Queen Serenity I remember, the one who would never hurt anyone, especially her daughter, but at the same time, what she said to you after what the scouts did doesn't correlate with what I remember either."

"What's going on Luna?" I asked my guardian desperately, "I've never heard of dreams that could physically hurt someone. And these feel so much more real than a dream, like they actually happened… If only I could remember more about what is happening in them." I was irritated with myself; before I could always remember my dreams, but it's like there's this haze clouding my mind from these dreams.

"Maybe they'll go away on their own," Luna said.

"I sure hope so Luna, I know I said I wouldn't run away from these dreams, but what if they get more violent? What if I get hurt worse than this?" I pointed to my face, "I mean how am I going to explain this anyway?"

"I don't know Serena. Why don't you clean it up, it might not be as bad as it appears."

I wet a cotton ball and wiped at the blood on my cheek. "It doesn't seem that bad," I commented when I had cleaned all the blood off, "It's already stopped bleeding so maybe it won't be as visible in the morning."

"Maybe, maybe…"

I threw away the bloody cotton ball in the trashcan and turned out the bathroom light on the way to bed. "Let's try this again Luna," I murmured, crawling under the sheets. I tossed a turned for a while before finally drifting off.

* * *

Fortunately for me, Dawn wasn't awake when I got up for school the next day and the scratch had pretty much disappeared by the time I got home. Nobody noticed it when I was at school, so I didn't have to think of a ridiculous story to tell people.

"Alright class, settle down," Ms. Blanchard said to us when we piled back in the next day from lunch, "I know you guys didn't enjoy that pop quiz before lunch, but I wanted to make sure that you have retained the information we have discussed so far in the term. It's the beginning of October now, so if you guys have been paying attention to your syllabuses, you'll know that we're starting a new section today." The petite teacher reached up and pulled down one of the numerous map screens at the top of the white board, revealing it to be a map of the solar system.

"We are starting the section of Earth science dealing with the solar system," the teacher continued, "I know what you all are thinking, what could Earth science have to do with space? Well, Earth exists in space right, so that is why we are studying. Now who here can tell me what we know about our solar system?"

As was typical for high school classes, nobody said anything. At my old school, we hadn't really studied space all that much in science classes, preferring instead to focus on aspects of science that were more 'down-to-Earth' I guess. With my past as Sailor Moon and my more distance past of course, I was a bit curious so I was excited to begin this chapter.

Ms. Blanchard waited a few minutes for someone to answer before sighing. "You guys do know that I'm grading you on class participation? So let's try this again, what do you know about our solar system?"

This time several hands around me popped up. They all provided different information regarding the planets, stars and constellations in the galaxy and a dispute broke out over whether Pluto was still a planet or not. Finally, Ms. Blanchard calmed everyone down and started her lecture. "Before we start, I would just like to clear up that Pluto is now known as a "dwarf planet" since it's so small. It's still a planet, just placed in a different bracket. Several planets found beyond Pluto have been placed in the same group because of their size." She pulled down another chart showing a chart of the orbital patterns of the galaxy. "Alright, now for the basics, every planet in this solar system orbits our central star, the sun. It is the closest star to Earth and provides light and energy to allow life to flourish on Earth. Centuries ago, people thought that the Earth was the center of the galaxy and everything, including the sun, revolved around it. However, scientific breakthroughs caused people to learn that the Earth and all of the planets revolved around the sun, which, as a star, stays in a fixed location."

I was completely enthralled with the lesson that I didn't notice the time creeping away from me. The bell rang, nearly startling me out of my seat and I gathered up all of my books. "Get a little bit distracted did we?" Anna asked, laughing as I flustered about for a moment before finally getting everything in my backpack.

"Shut-up," I said as we left the classroom, "I've never studied outer space before, it was never really that important. It's fascinating to hear this for the first time."

"Really, you've never studied space before?" Anna asked surprised.

"Yeah, it wasn't high on the list of topics to cover apparently."

"Well, you should be happy; we're getting at least a few weeks of this, pretty good considering we spent all of September on water... well, everything concerning water anyway."

"Knock it off Anna, I'll see ya later," I told her as we went out separate ways once we reached the gym. I, once again, got through class without hurting anyone or killing myself. With all the extra strength training I was doing at home to be able to participate in fencing and archery and the balance lessons that Coach Wood was putting me through, I was getting stronger and better. I still wasn't a world-class athlete and I wasn't good at sports, but I've been managing to pass each assignment Coach has given us.

As soon as class was over, I ran out to the field where Archery was held every Wednesday when there was good weather. Archery was really one of those "good weather" sports, so when it rained or got too far below freezing, we couldn't practice.

"Hey Ms. Blanchard," I greeted my teacher when I reached the field.

"Oh hey Serena," she smiled at me, "I think you've progressed wonderfully these last few weeks and you've completed the safety orientation, I think you're ready to actually start using a bow."

I grinned gleefully and skipped over to the practice bows, my teacher following close behind me. I picked up one of the cooler looking bows, but Ms. Blanchard just shook her head and handed me a plain, older looking bow. "Awe, Ms. Blanchard, this one doesn't look cool," I whined.

"But it's an older, more dependable bow," the teacher returned patiently, "the bow you picked up is newer, and better suited towards a more advanced archer. If you're a beginner, it's better to start out using a bow that has already been weathered a bit. And besides, that bow was too big for you; this one is closer to the size that you will be using if you continue on with this sport. If you do chose to carry on, you'll eventually get your own, customized bow. For right now, let's just get to practicing."

Ms. Blanchard showed me the proper stance for firing arrows and copied her position as best as I could. When she released her arrow, it buried itself into the center of the target. However, when I let go of my arrow, it didn't even fly halfway to the target. I sighed and lowered my bow in defeat, staring at my fallen arrow.

"It's alright Serena," Ms. Blanchard said, patting my arm, "Like all things, you can only get better through practice and improving your form. Now line up again, and I'll help you this time." I nodded and raised my bow, pulling back another arrow. "Wait, wait," Ms. Blanchard said, "Don't put an arrow in yet, just pull the string back like there's an arrow."

"Why?" I asked my teacher, placing the arrow back in the quiver.

"Checking your grip on the bow, if you have an improper grip, your arrow won't go where you want it to go." I nodded my head and lifted the bow again. Ms. Blanchard chuckled softly and put her hand over my own, the one holding the bow. "I can tell that your grip is too tense, you need to relax it a bit," she said.

"But don't I need a strong grip to keep the bow stable?"

"Most would think so, but too strong and you actually twist the bow, keeping the arrow from flying straight," the short-haired teacher replied, "Now just relax your grip a bit." I loosened my grip on the bow a bit, which apparently satisfied Ms. Blanchard because she smiled at me. "Good," she said, "Now you can nock your arrow and get into your stance, just remember the grip you have right now."

I picked up an arrow and pulled it back in place. "Alright, now make sure that you use a consistent anchor point on your face where you pull back the arrow… Good now fire!" My teacher yelled and I released the arrow. This time it hit the target, barely. "That's really good Serena," Ms. Blanchard encouraged.

"But I didn't hit the bull's eye," I replied sadly.

"That comes with practice silly," she laughed, "Now just keep going. I'm going to go help some of the other students."

I continued practicing for another hour, hitting the target sometimes, missing it others. I called it quits when my arm started hurting holding the bow up for so long. Gathering the arrows that I used from the target and from behind it, I replaced them in the quiver and placed the quiver and bow back in the storage shed on the field. The field where we practiced double as track and field practice area, so all of the equipment was kept in the shed.

I jogged back to the locker rooms and took a quick shower, rinsing off all the sweat that I had worked up through gym class and the club meeting. Casually, I glanced at the clock in the locker room and nearly cursed at the time. "I am sooo late," I hissed to myself and I quickly toweled myself off and put my normal clothes back on.

Racing out of the school, I quickly located Stella's jeep and climbed in, starting the vehicle. I started down the road towards home, hoping that Dawn wouldn't notice that I was late. She had told me this morning before I left for school that we were having guests over for dinner so I had to be home early to help her cook.

"I'm here," I yelled, running through the door, "I'm not late."

"Yes you are," Dawn yelled back from the kitchen.

I tossed my backpack down on the couch and sprinted into the kitchen. "I'm only an…" I looked at the clock on the wall, "hour late? Wow…"

Dawn rolled her eyes, "Just start tossing the salad, they're going to be here any minute."

"Who's coming?"

"Aunt Bee and Aunt Helen," my sister said, taking the lasagna out of the oven, "I told them to come over for dinner one night when I had the day off. They picked today. Aunt Helen is really excited to meet you apparently. They wanted to come earlier than this, but we all got caught up with work and everything."

I forced a smile out, internally sweating on how to get through this dinner without freaking out. These two women were some of the greatest enemies I've ever faced, but at the same time, they're not. They share faces and names, but they're not the same people as far as I can tell. "Can I go upstairs and put my bag away?" I asked, "Do I have to change my clothes?"

"No, you look fine. Bee and Helen are family, so it doesn't really matter what you look like. If you feel like you want to look nicer, feel free to change, but if you're okay with your clothes, it's fine by me."

I nodded and headed upstairs, tossing my bag on my bed as soon as I entered my room. "Hi Jacey," I cooed at the little puppy asleep on a pillow on top of my bed before moving to the black cat seated on the window sill. "Hey Luna, Beryl and… excuse me, Bee and Helen are coming for dinner tonight if you want to come down and eat with us."

"Hmm, I think I will."

I heard the doorbell ring downstairs and Dawn went to answer it. "C'mon Luna, they're here. I'll slip you some lasagna for dinner," I told her as we headed to the stairs.

"Thanks, the cat food is getting old," Luna replied before we trotted down the stairs. We entered the living room and I spotted the two look-alike former enemies sitting on the couch petting Sasha and Jacey.

They looked up and smiled when they saw me. Nehelenia… Helen stood up and moved towards me. "You must be Serena," she said, pulling me into a hug, "I'm so happy to meet you at last. You can call me Aunt Helen if you feel comfortable, but if not then please just call me Helen, no Mrs. or Ma'am nonsense."

I was slightly shocked at her friendly nature but quickly returned the hug so as not to offend her. When she pulled back, I got a good look at the woman who I had known as Queen Nehelenia, leader of the Dead Moon Circus. The only resemblance the two women shared was the same facial features and hair, but after that, it was easy to differentiate the two women in my head. Where Nehelenia was covered in dark makeup and flowing gowns, Helen was clean faced and dressed for comfort in jeans and a normal blouse, her hair pulled back in a loose ponytail.

"It's nice to meet you too," I replied warmly, firmly separating the two women in my mind, before turning to Beyr- Bee. I could also see the difference between her and the Dark Queen who destroyed the Silver Millennium. Bee's red hair, while dark, was highlighted with auburn streaks that made her seem lighter, more approachable. It was also cut and styled differently. Instead of falling down her back in thick waves, part of it was pulled back and braided while the rest of it was straightened and hung around her face in wispy layers. "It's good to see you again Bee," I said to the woman, hugging her as well.

"Okay," Dawn said, coming in the living room, "Now that everyone is acquainted, dinner's ready, let's eat."

"Can I put some lasagna out for Luna for dinner?" I asked, "She's tired of cat food."

"It's fine as long as Sasha or Jacey doesn't see," Dawn answered, "You don't want to give Jacey people food this early and Sasha doesn't need the calories in lasagna. I worry about how much she eats, she's gonna get fat."

"With as much running around as Sasha does?" Bee commented with a laugh, "I doubt if she eats enough to cover everything she loses."

"Yeah," Helen agreed, "Every time we're here, that cat is off stalking something else, now at least she has a puppy and another cat to play with all the time."

"Oh Jacey loves Sasha," I interjected, "Luna however does not approve of running around all the time. She's far too dignified for that." I set a small piece of lasagna down on a plate on the floor and chuckled when I saw Luna strut towards the food.

Dinner wasn't as awkward as I thought it was going to be. Once I firmly separated the two women from their enemy counterparts, I began to see them as part of Dawn's family. I wasn't quite as comfortable to refer to them as my family as well, but given time, anything is possible. I sat next to Dawn while Bee and Helen sat across from us. The three of them talked and I listened, inputting into the conversation every now and then when prompted or when I figured I could assist the discussion, but other than that I was pretty content to just listen.

Once I finished my lasagna and salad, I asked Dawn if I could be excused. "I have a lot of homework to do, and I would like to get ahead in some subjects. We just started a new topic in science class," I said to her, looking apologetically at our guests.

Dawn nodded her head and waved me off, "Go, go study."

Helen got up and hugged me before I left. "It was really nice to meet you Serena," she said when she released me. Bee stood up and did the same. I voiced my goodbyes to both of them and headed back upstairs to my room, Luna hot on my heels.

"How was your dinner?" I asked her once we got back to my room.

"Dawn makes really good lasagna," she sighed, flopping down on my bed with a contented purr.

I smiled and shook my head, pulling out my science book to read the first chapter of the new section. I snorted when I saw that the first chapter was about the Moon. _I'm the moon princess, or was,_ I thought to myself, _I'm pretty sure I know everything there is to know about the moon._

I started to read the chapter anyway, just as a refresher about the place that was my home in my previous life. The more I read in the chapter, the more I came to realize that I knew absolutely nothing about the moon; everything I thought I knew proved to be wrong. The moon, the one that circles the Earth, is not the only moon in the galaxy, nor is it the largest in the solar system. I was completely shocked when I got to the end of the chapter when I read that the light of the moon doesn't actually come from the moon, but is really light from the sun simply reflected off of the moon's surface.

"Hey Luna," I said turning toward my guardian, "The Moon kingdom was the leader of the Silver Alliance back in the Silver Millennium right?"

"Yes of course," she replied, "The Moon was always the leader of the this galaxy. All of the planets, except Earth, bowed to the leadership of the Moon."

"Why?"

"What do you mean why?"

"Well," I started, "According to my science book, the moon that orbits Earth isn't even the largest moon in the galaxy, and it's not like it is in the center of this galaxy, the sun is. So why was the moon the leader?"

Luna looked startled, "Well, because it produces a source of light."

"But that's just it Luna," I exclaimed, "Science has proven that the moon doesn't produce the light that shines from it. It's merely a reflection of the light from the sun."

The small cat looked at me flabbergasted before rubbing her head with her paw. "Aah," she cried, "It's like something is niggling at me in the back of my mind, but I have no idea what it is."  
"Me too," I said, feeling a headache starting to form behind my eyes, "Ugh, I think it's time for bed, sleep it off I guess." I quickly packed my backpack for tomorrow for school, and went to the bathroom to start a bath. I pulled my hair up on top of my head and eased into the warm soapy water. I sighed at the tension from the day and the headache that had developed slowly eased away.

When I realized that the water was getting cold and I was slowly starting to drift off to sleep, I reluctantly climbed out of the tub and dried off. With a towel wrapped around me, I pulled my hair down out of the bun it was in and walked back into my bedroom. I got dressed for bed and climbed under the covers of my bed. My eyelids started to droop and as I drifted off to sleep, I started to dream.

_Dreamscape_

_ This dream was much different from the others that I had witnessed. It was foggy, and clouded over. Shapes danced around me, but I couldn't tell what they were. I couldn't tell how old I was since everything was so clouded over. I could hear voices; at first they weren't really clear but eventually my hearing adjusted and I could understand what was being said. I could feel myself replying but I had no control over what I was saying._

_ "… Selena you have to run," a voice said to me._

_ "I don't understand," I felt myself replying, "What's going on?"_

_ "I don't know," the voice replied, "but we have to get out of here."_

_ "Hey," another voice called, "Over here, I found a way out."_

_ The owner of the voice I was speaking to grabbed my hand and pulled me into a run. I could feel myself running towards the voice and down a corridor into another room. Everything felt ho;, it was making me uncomfortable. Suddenly an explosion of heat erupted near me and I was ripped away from the hand. I was hot, so hot, everything was burning._

_ I could still hear voices. They were muffled but I could still hear them. "-other why are you doing this, what did we ever do to you?"_

_ "You existed," a cold harsh voice replied. This voice sounded like Queen Serenity but I couldn't be sure. "None of this was meant to be, none of this is what I envisioned my future to look like, my legacy."_

_ The voice that directed us out of the other room spoke next, but I couldn't understand what they were saying until the other voice spoke again. "So this is how you decided to fix everything? To destroy us all?"_

_ "I will make the future that I had envisioned, and I hate to tell you my dears but you aren't in it," Queen Serenity replied._

_ The burning heat intensified and I heard screams before everything fell silent. I felt a hand brush the hair on my head and I whimpered, turning away. "Shush my dear," Queen Serenity murmured in my ear, "It'll be over soon. You'll be the daughter that I always wanted, the one that I always imagined you would be, I'll make sure of that. I did all of this for you."_

_ The heat increased, and I realized that I was on fire; I was burning. I was being burned alive. I could hear and noise roaring in my ears and I realized that it was my own voice, screaming out in pain…_

_End Dreamscape_

I felt a hand gently shaking me awake. "Serena, Serena wake up," I heard Dawn's voice say gently. She sounded worried and frightened.

I slowly blinked my eyes open. "What-What happened?" I asked sleepily.

"You were screaming in your sleep; it sounded like you were in pain. I came in to check on you to make sure that you were all right." I sat up and put my hand to my head, trying to orient myself. Dawn gasped, "Serena, your arm, what happened?"

Confused, I looked down at my arm and realized there was an intricate burn in the shape of a dancing flame wrapping around my arm. I started to sob when I saw it. "I don't know," I replied honestly, tears dripping down my face, "I've just been having these dreams for a few weeks. Each one different, and each time I get hurt in the dream, I wake up with the same injury. The problem is that I don't remember what happens in the dreams." I looked up at my big sister and I saw confusion on her face. "Dawn," I whispered, "I'm scared."

"Oh honey," she said, pulling me into a hug. I nestled my head underneath her chin and just let myself be held as I cried. "How about this, I'll stay with you tonight until you fall back asleep, and I'll make sure to stay with you every night before you sleep to make sure you don't have any more nightmares."

"You'd do that?" I asked, pulling back to look at her.

Dawn gave me a loving smile, "Of course, you're my little sister. I don't know how your dreams are hurting you, but I don't want you to be afraid to go to sleep. Now let's put some dressing on those burns for right now. I'll take you to the doctor in the morning."

"But I have school," I protested before I realized what I was saying. Back in Japan I would do anything to miss a day in school, but here, I actually like going. I'm enjoying what I'm learning and the friends that I've made.

"I'm going to call Fiona in the morning and phone you in sick. I'll get the doctor to fax over a note to get the absence excused. We'll see how you feel on Friday okay?"

I nodded my head in acquiescence and let Dawn pull me up and into the bathroom. She took a bin out from under the cabinet sink and filled it with cool water. I placed my arm in the cool water and watched her while she pulled out other supplies from underneath the counter. After about 10 minutes, Dawn had me take my arm out and she gently patted it dry with a towel and wrapped it in gauze.

"Okay, you're all set," Dawn said, tucking me back into bed. I smiled gratefully up at my older sister and watched as she perched herself on the edge of my bed. "It's okay," she murmured, fingering my hair softly, "I'll keep you safe, just sleep."

Her soothing voice quickly sent me into a pleasant, undisturbed sleep. **  
**

* * *

**A/N: Review please**

**I'm going to skip ahead in time a bit for the next one, I've gotten pretty much all of the school scenes I'm going to have unless someone wants an Omake for some of the Cameo characters. Probably the next scene actually at school will be finals**


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